Fire and Rain
by Golden-Sama
Summary: [Complete] David Rica is sent from SOLOMON HQ to review the STN-J; but he's hiding a deadly secret that could cost Michael his freedom, and Robin her life; plus Sakaki and Doujima's flirting turns serious. RobinxMike, SakaxDoji, AmonxKara
1. That New Orleans Charm

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter I - That ****New Orleans****' Charm**

**  
  
Rated**: PG-13 for Mild Violence, Mild Profanity, and Mature Content**  
  
Summary**: After the bout with Nobunaga, the STN-J is under review from Solomon Agent Saunders and his deputy, David Rica, but is there more to Rica than meets the eye? And what about Robin and Michael's continuing romance?**  
  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. This story was written strictly out of the fact I enjoy writing and I enjoy watching Witch Hunter Robin®. I am making no money off of this, only reviews.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Sarah Rhodes©, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property.

----------------

_Three hundred and twenty years have passed._

_Since the Coven sank in the dark._

                        _An unknown review_

_                                    An undead witch_

_            Seeing the world_

_                                    Through dead eyes._

**_--------------_**

Footsteps.  
  
One of Amon's greatest strengths was hearing those minute footstep sounds that most people ignored. Even when people were walking quietly in padded shoes, he would still hear them. He would still hear their sound. And when he heard their sound he could shoot them. And that made all the difference in his business  
  
Amon held his gun aloft in his hand, finger poised on the trigger. The witch was around somewhere, and she was out for revenge. That always made things dangerous. A mad witch who knew nothing about the Hunters was a mighty foe, but mad witch who knew about them took away Amon's one, greatest power.  
  
Surprise.  
  
You can't be surprised when you know exactly what hunts you. You can't be surprised when you know exactly what is happening. Keeping his right hand poised firmly on the gun and keeping it next to his face, he reached his left hand behind him and made a fist.  
  
Robin, who in a rare instant actually was partnered up with her actual partner Amon, she nodded upon seeing his fist. It was a military symbol, one that Robin had learned while training for her job.  
  
And while guns and military symbols were not unusual for most government agencies, the STN-J was different.  
  
"YOU!"  
  
Amon gave a sigh and turned to his right. The old warehouse they were in was a two story building, Karasuma and Doujima, fresh off medical leave, were walking along those corridors. And yet Amon had found the witch first.  
  
"You killed him!"  
  
Amon raised his gun and fired, but before his bullets ever hit their target they exploded in mid air. Sarah Rhodes had been practicing in the few weeks since she became a witch.  
  
Then the wall behind Robin and Amon exploded, throwing them both down to the ground. Robin watched as her glasses fell off of her eyes and onto the ground. She could still try her fire powers, but it was dangerous.  
  
More shots rang out towards the Witch but she destroyed them in mid air. Sarah turned around and saw Doujima. Normally Doujima wasn't the one to be this involved in work, but she had been so happy to get real food on this day instead of that hospital crud that she was working almost as hard as the rookie Sakaki.  
  
Rhodes looked up and the loft that Doujima stood on exploded, dropping the blonde, she would have been back in the hospital, or perhaps a grave six feet under, but Karasuma reached out her hand and grabbed Doujima before she fell.  
  
"You all must die!"  
  
Amon was working as far as he could to free himself from his new prison underneath of what was once the wall he had walked by. Still he was pinned and he had no chance of escaping as of yet.  
  
Suddenly more shots rang out. Sarah span around to destroy them, but she tripped on the ground and fell. A puddle of water was right beneath her feet. Sarah looked up at the sky in pain and felt a surge of anger. She tried to get up but the same puddle that had been beneath her feet a moment ago was now floating before her.  
  
Sarah watched in amazement as the water before her eyes that floated began to expand, began to grow. Her mouth dropped open in wonder and when it did the water flew into her mouth in the blink of an eye.  
  
She began to make gurgling sounds and began to fall backwards onto her back. As she did the water continued to jet into her mouth as if it shot from an invisible hose. She banged her fist on the ground and tried to breath, but it did not work.  
  
Robin watched as someone she had never before seen appeared walking inside from the way she and Amon had come. He was an American, with a handsome face behind his dark sunglasses. He wore a navy blue jacket much like the ones Amon and Karasuma were wearing.  
  
"Now, now, lil' puppy, you shouldn'ta gone and done all that now."  
  
The man had an American accent, but Robin couldn't place it right away. She had been raised in Italy, and while there she learned to speak three languages fluently, yet even though she spoke English she had never heard his method of speech before. It wasn't his speech, however, that worried Robin.  
  
It was the fact he was a craft-user.   
  
"Enough."   
  
The man with the sunglasses turned around to reveal a second man none of the STN-J had seen. He was tubby and gray haired, wearing a white pinstripe suit. He carried with him a long cane made of solid wood, with a metal handle.  
  
"But of course Mr. Saunders, I was just puttin' our little puppy in 'er place."  
  
The man smiled broadly and all at once the jet of water had stopped shooting into Sarah's mouth. It didn't matter, though, since she was drowned already. Dead now, just as Kita Nobunaga, the person whose live she had been avenging was.  
  
Time passed slowly as Amon and Robin were freed from the large piece of what was once wall. When at last the two had been set free, and Doujima and Karasuma had re-joined the main group, the man in white, Mr. Saunders, gave an explanation.  
  
Of course, Amon knew right away that Saunders and the man in the navy jacket were, of course, STN agents. Still Amon didn't like foreign STN operatives interfering in his investigations.  
  
"My name." The man in white said. "Is Joseph Saunders, I'm from Solomon."  
  
Amon didn't look impressed.   
  
"My, my, my." The man in the navy jacket said. "And here I thought the STN-J was supposed to be useful."  
  
Many pairs of angry eyes turned on him, but he merely flashed them a nice smile.  
  
"You must forgive me for mah own rudeness. David Rica, at your service." The New Orleans native smiled once again and flashed a smile at Amon that infuriated the dark hunter to a boiling point. It was unusual for someone to get under Amon's skin so much, and Karasuma noticed it.  
  
"Enough." Saunders said simply. "I want to see Zaizen."  
  
----  
  
"Yes I understand."  
  
It was odd.   
  
When Michael Lee's life had been spared from by Zaizen after he hacked into their personal files, he had imagined that Zaizen was a man with no equal. A man who was greater than most of the people with his powers. And while over the years Michael knew that Zaizen had bosses just like everyone else, those bosses were always people on a phone and people far away over the seas, and now one of those bosses was here.  
  
"Now Zaizen, I don't want this to become a problem, but you do understand why I'm doing this." Saunders asked.  
  
"Yes, I do." Though Zaizen spoke with the utmost respect, it was clear to any who looked into his eyes that he was angry. Very angry.  
  
"Good." Saunders smiled. "Now I'll be having a look down at the Factory, David will be staying here, evaluating your team's performance."  
  
All four of the Witch Hunters who stood in the room didn't like that news. Michael wondered if that meant this David Rica would be evaluating him as well.  
  
"Now let's go." Saunders spoke again to Zaizen, ignoring everyone else.   
  
"Of course, _sir_." The words looked almost painful for Zaizen to speak. As the two entered the elevator Zaizen nodded twice to Michael, who got the message. It was an old code the two of them had worked up; it meant that Rica was on a need-to-know basis.  
  
As Zaizen and Saunders vanished, Rica spun around on the spot and took off his sunglasses. He breathed on them and rubbed them on his shirt before placing them back on his face.  
  
"N'ow." He said smugly. "Some of you may know why I'm here. The rest of you may not. But the reason happens to be the fact your boss is a complete, what's the word you use, baka? And the rest of you are what, back in New Orleans, we'd call screw ups."  
  
"That is not fair." Robin said. Michael sighed and shook his head. He wished he had a way to warn Robin, but the damage was done.  
  
"Oh? And why not lil' puppy?" Rica asked sarcastically.  
  
"Because you do not know us, you base everything on what you've read."   
  
Rica's smile only grew. "Allow me to explain this to you little girl, you read our files about Witches, and then you kill them--"  
  
"We don't kill witches here." Michael corrected, defending both the STN-J and Robin at once.  
  
Rica ignored him. "And yet when I read your files and assume things about you I am wrong? Little hypocritical are you there miss?"  
  
Robin would not let this go. She was angry and she had a child's stubborn nature. "We read about a witch's entire life, you're basing this on one case."   
  
Rica shrugged, but the annoying grin on his face did not vanish. "Well you're opinion will be noted, but let me tell you lil' lady, your jobs are in my hands, so I'd watch that mouth of yours."   
  
Michael was ready to spat something, almost involuntarily, but Amon beat him to the chance.  
  
"Our jobs depend on more than whether you like us or not. Besides." The dark hunter said darkly. "It is your boss who decides that."  
  
Rica's annoying smile grew to be a smile that irritated one straight through the skin. "You don't like me, do you Mr. Amon?"  
  
Amon said nothing. He had become no more than a statue, because that was his way. He may say something, but he may also go on forever without speaking a word.  
  
"Well I don't like you either." Rica said at last. "But the fact is five members of a five member STN group were assigned to sick leave last month. That is not a efficient Witch Hunting group."  
  
"Nobunaga was a special case." Karasuma said.  
  
"Yeah, he was a frickin' psycho." Doujima added.  
  
Rica laughed a laugh even more annoying than his smile. "Maybe, but that is no excuse. And this Sakaki screw up is still gone."  
  
"He was stabbed." Robin said bitterly.  
  
"Do I look like I care?" Rica asked, annoying smile lighting up once more. "Listen folks, I don't really give a dam' if you like me or not, you just betta' hope I like you."  
  
----  
  
It was late, Rica had gone off to the hotel he'd be staying at, and the rest of the STN-J, after a sigh of relief, and some words exchanged about their new 'reviewer', a discussion that even Chief Kosaka joined in with a few choice expletives that would have only made Rica's smile become unbearable.  
  
It was odd, even with the constant quarrels that went on, (Kosaka and Doujima's never ending battle over the smallest things, or Robin's little sighs whenever she was treated like a child), when someone like Rica appeared in their midst, every one of the STN-J gave up those small fights.  
  
Now, however, the STN-J were on their way home for the night. It was only Michael, who of course was already home for the night, Robin, who always left late on some nights, and Doujima, who, unlike the rest of the STN-J, had noticed the little hints.  
  
And so they sat there. Michael at his desk typing away so fast it was impossible to tell what he was doing, Robin beside him, staring out of the window up at the moon, and Doujima in the chair behind them, reading a magazine.  
  
"I'll make some coffee." Robin said at last.   
  
"I take mine with sugar." Doujima said, looking up.  
  
Robin nodded and then walked off. It struck Doujima as odd that she didn't ask Michael how he wanted his coffee. It was then she grinned broadly, in what could have been an impression of David Rica. She looked over at Michael and her grin became big and toothy.  
  
After a moment Michael stopped typing and turned around. "What?"  
  
"Oh, nothing." Doujima lied.  
  
Finally Robin returned, and brought them three coffee mugs. She handed on to Doujima and then placed one next to Michael. On his left side, away from his typing arms, so he didn't accidentally knock it over, something she had learned the hard way.  
  
But upon seeing this it was the last bit of evidence Doujima needed.  
  
"So how long has it been going on?"  
  
Michael continued to type and ignore her, but Robin's child like curiosity made her ask: "How long has what been going on?"  
  
Doujima laughed. "Don't play dumb. I mean you two."  
  
Robin flushed a bright red and shook her head. She didn't know how to answer that. Michael seamed to be ignoring Doujima, which Robin should have done. Really, _nothing_ was "going on", but still Robin was unsure of even that.  
  
Was something going on?  
  
"Well?" Doujima asked, becoming a bit fed up.  
  
Still Robin just sat, unsure of what to answer so she answered nothing, for saying the wrong thing would be much ruder than saying nothing at all, and Michael ignored the world around him completely.  
  
"Fine!" Doujima spat at last. "But it's obvious."  
  
Doujima sighed and walked over to the elevator and vanished from sight. Neither Robin nor Michael spoke, they just went on as they had before Doujima had left. Finally the night wore on, and even the coffee couldn't keep Robin's eyelids open anymore. Realizing she still had a long drive home, even on her scooter, she stood up and began to walk towards the elevator.  
  
"Good night Michael."  
  
"See you tomorrow Robin."  
  
And so she disappeared down the elevator.  
  
And once she vanished Michael sighed. Things were . . . complicated.  
  
----  
  
In a nice hotel on the side of town, David Rica lay back on his bed. His navy jacket and STN uniform had been replaced by a robe, and his sunglasses lay on the desk next to him.  
  
He sighed. It was annoying watching TV in another country, and because of it he switched it off. He spoke Japanese, but he was becoming fed up.  
  
Looking around the room Rica had to admit it was a nice hotel room. Solomon could afford a better one, but David wasn't surprise. At least he hadn't had to "bunk up" with Saunders again. That would have infuriated him greatly.  
  
Suddenly a phone was ringing. Not the one of the bedside table, but the cellular one in his jacket. Crossing over to the room he grabbed the phone from the inside pocket and checked his caller ID. A smirk appeared on his face and he answered it.  
  
"You know what hour it is here?" Rica asked. He listened to the answer on the other end and laughed. "Indeed. Is everything over there ready?" A pause, a second answer from the phone and then a smile, not the annoying one of fake charm and sarcasm, but a smile that was made in hell.  
  
"Excellent. We begin in the morning."  
  
---------------------****


	2. Adjusting to Change

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
  
  
Chapter II - Adjusting to Change**

**  
  
  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes/  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property.   
  
----------------  
  
Pain boiled up in Sakaki's legs as he tried his best to walk along the narrow platform. He had to keep his arms steadied on both arm railings and walk across, but it wasn't that easy. Recovering was a hard business, he knew that.  
  
Sakaki had been stabbed, stabbed with a six inch bowie knife in his waist. Kita Nobunaga had been the stabber, and now he was stuck with the incredibly long and painful process of moving again.  
  
Apparently the shock from being stabbed was still in effect, because Sakaki couldn't walk: hence the psychical therapy. He had always loved Gym class when he was just a boy, but now he hated doing the exercises the nurses gave him. He felt so . . . helpless. He hated the feeling of helplessness. He wanted to go somewhere, anywhere. He just wanted to take another road. Find a hiding place. Find a place to disappear from his world now.  
  
It wasn't because of the pain, the deep searing pain that he felt in his body. It was the deeper, hotter pain that he felt down in his heart whenever he remembered what had happened. It was the pain of knowing he failed Amon and Robin.   
  
But most of all the pain of knowing what happened. He had been there; he had been there to protect Karasuma and Doujima. They were in a hospital, they couldn't protect themselves. They needed him. And he had failed. If Amon hadn't been there, if Amon hadn't been ready, if Amon wasn't so damn good at his job then three witch hunters would have died that night, and Nobunaga may never have been stopped.  
  
With a sigh the weight of his heart seamed to become almost unbearable and he dropped from the railings and back onto the floor. Suddenly he heard footsteps walking to his side, the nurse, no, it was someone else. The nurse would have ran after him, this person was walking.  
  
"Sakaki."  
  
Sakaki shifted his weight and looked up at Robin's worried face. He hadn't heard her come in, but he wasn't surprised. She had come to visit him before. Part of him still felt guilty that she was being so nice to him after he had shot her, but he didn't dare bring that back up again, he knew she'd only tell him the same thing she had before.  
  
"Yeah, I'm okay Robin." He lied, trying to get to his feet.  
  
"Those things suck, eh?"  
  
Sakaki turned his head to see Doujima sitting on a chair in the end of the room, a magazine in her hand.   
  
"Are you too lazy to even come over when someone needs help?"  
  
"You just said you were fine." Doujima laughed.   
  
Sakaki sighed and, with some help from Robin, managed to stand up once more and hold onto the railings. Robin sighed and looked hesitant to move, in case he should fall again, but Sakaki wasn't going anywhere. Not yet.  
  
"So is this the one who refuses to come into work?"  
  
Sakaki looked over up at the door to see an American man in a navy STN jacket. He wore dark sunglasses and a smug smile. Sakaki didn't know who he was, but he didn't like him.  
  
"He was stabbed." Robin said, Sakaki turned and saw angry passion burning in her eyes. Whether it was because she was sticking up for him, or because she hated the American man with the southern accent, he didn't know.  
  
"And in Japan that's a fitting excuse?" David Rica said with his always smug smile on his face. Sakaki opened his mouth to speak but Doujima beat him to it. Instead of Robin's anger filled explanation, or the four letter words that had been floating around on the tip of the rookie's tongue. Doujima had stood up and slapped David Rica across his face so hard that it left a large, red hand print.  
  
"He was stabbed you stupid son of a bitch!"  
  
Robin and Sakaki were taken aback by Doujima's sudden fury and they both stepped back into the railing behind them.   
  
David Rica stood, his head tilted to the left, sunglasses lopsided over his ears and eyes and the smug grin on his face was gone. He reached out and grabbed Doujima's wrist and anger seamed to surge from his entire body.  
  
"Now I hope you know you just lost your job." Rica spat violently. Doujima merely laughed. She'd heard that threat before from Kosaka, and yet, as anyone knows, she had connections.  
  
Rica turned around and left the hospital room, only to stop and stick his head back inside. "And you, boy, if you're not back on the active roster by next week you can join her!"  
  
When Rica had vanished Doujima gave a great huff and walked over to the two younger STN members with her arms crossed.  
  
"I hate that man." She said bitterly. "I really, really hate him."  
  
"Who is he?" Sakaki asked, though it was obvious he would still hate the man no matter what the answer was.  
  
"A Solomon review agent." Robin said quietly, her face still flushed from watching the outbreak of Doujima's anger.  
  
"What!?" Sakaki yelled and he nearly fell over onto the blue mat beneath them once more, but both girls grabbed one of his arms. "Doujima! You can't slap a Solomon review agent!"  
  
"Relax." Doujima said, ruffling Sakaki's hair. "Number one, I can get away with most anything, remember?"  
  
"Well I can't." Sakaki mumbled.  
  
"And number two." She continued ignoring him. "There's another Solomon agent here, that guy's boss. So don't worry."  
  
"I guess . . ." Sakaki mumbled quietly.  
  
"Robin!"  
  
Michael's voice filled the room from the small communication device. Robin brought it up to her face.  
  
"Michael, what's the matter?"  
  
"We've got a serious emergency! Are you still going to visit Sakaki?"  
  
"We're here now." Robin asked. "What is the emergency?"  
  
"Suicidal man on the roof." Michael said.  
  
"What, this roof?" Doujima blinked. She ran to the window and looked out onto the hospital grounds, and sure enough several police and firemen were parked on the street around the hospital, and a large crowd had gathered.  
  
"Michael." Sakaki asked, puzzled. "What does a suicidal man have to do with us?"  
  
"He's a witch, what do you think?" Michael shouted back. "Robin, look, you gotta stop him from jumping. If he does we're in a lot of trouble."  
  
Robin blinked. "Why? What will happen?" She hadn't meant it like that. She thought suicide was a horrible thing, but she wondered what made this so urgent.  
  
"He won't die." Michael's voice said bitterly. "He doesn't know what he is, but he knows he has powers. Robin, if that man jumps he's going to survive it without a scratch, his powers will protect him, and if they do that a whole lot of people are going to be curious about it. Some of them may even try to re-create his stunt."  
  
----  
  
Robin and Doujima ran from the room, leaving Sakaki behind. He wanted to come along, but both of them had strictly forbid it. Running up the hallways they used the elevator to get to the top floor and finally found the stairs leading up to the roof.  
  
"Hold it!" A police officer stood at the door and shook his head. "No one gets by."  
  
"STN-J." Doujima said.  
  
"What?" The cop blinked confused.  
  
"Us, we're with the STN-J."  
  
The cop quirked his brows. "Even if you are, what does the STN-J have to do with a suicide?"  
  
Doujima narrowed her eyes and began to speak, but Robin had beaten her to it this time.   
  
"Sir, if it means a man's life what do you care who we are and what authority we have?"  
  
The cop blinked and began to say something that sounded like "No" but Robin continued to speak and cut him off.  
  
"Please, rules and regulations can wait, a human life is so much more important."  
  
Somehow the way the reddish-blonde haired girl spoke those words made the officer realize she was right and he stepped aside. Doujima was impressed, very impressed. She made a mental note to ask Robin how to sound so sincere later. Then again Robin really was that sincere.  
  
The man on the edge of the roof turned around and looked at the two young women who had appeared from the doorway.  
  
"Stay back or I'll jump."  
  
"Why?" Robin asked. "Why do you want to do this?"  
  
"You won't understand." The man said, and in his voice was real fear. "You won't understand."  
  
Robin took a timid step forward. "Is it because of your powers?"  
  
The man's eyes widened and he moved closer to the edge, causing a nervous gasp from the crowd below. "How do you." The man began with terror in his voice. "How do you know?"  
  
Robin took another step forward and gently smiled. "It's okay."  
  
"No it's not!" The man screamed. "I'm a freak!"  
  
Robin shook her head. "No, it's more normal than you think."  
  
The man looked even more afraid of this. "C-can you, Do y-you--?"  
  
"Yes." Robin said, she extended her petite hand out in a friendly fashion. "It's quite okay."  
  
The man reached out his hand and shakily took Robin's. She smiled a genuine smile of friendship and began to lead him away from the edge.  
  
Then the gun fired.  
  
Robin watched in horror as the man's chest exploded with small bullet holes and he fell backwards over the roof.   
  
Doujima spun around to find Rica standing at the doorway with his gun drawn. He wasn't using a Orbo gun, just a basic 9mm. Doujima screamed: "What are you doing!?"  
  
"Calm down lil' puppy." Rica said with his annoying smile. "If the witch is dead his powers can't save him."  
  
"Robin had already convinced him to stop!" Doujima screamed even louder. "You murdered him in cold blood!"  
  
"Oh? It looked to me like he was trying to take lil' Robin and pull her down with him. You should thank me."  
  
Doujima tried to slap him again, but Rica was too fast and he grabbed her wrist and began to twist it painfully. Doujima felt tears well up in her eyes but she bit them back and shot a deadly glance into Rica's eyes.  
  
"Now listen here." David said with venom. "I'm your boss whether you like it or not, and if you hit me one more time it'll be you who falls off the next roof."  
  
Turning around he disappeared down back into the hallway. Doujima growled and kicked her foot on the ground. David Rica was a smug jackass and she would do everything in her power to make him suffer while he was in Japan.  
  
Doujima then turned to Robin, who hadn't moved at all. The youngest of the Witch Hunters just stood, a few drops of the man's blood on her youthful face, and a look of sheer foreboding in her eyes.  
  
----  
  
Touko stood in the kitchen while she waited for the pot on the stove to boil so that she could finish preparing the tear. Amon said nothing from his seat at her table; he just looked down at his gloved hands. It was completely silent except for the bubbling of the water.  
  
Finally the whistle on the tea pot let out its steam and scream and Touko grabbed it to fill up the two small glasses that contained the tea bags. She did it in silence, and Amon added no sound. She glanced back at the table from the corner of her eyes just to make sure he was still there at all. It was hard to be sure of that at some times.  
  
Then the front door opened and the eyes of both Amon and Touko shot to where Robin now stood. The young girl had noticed both of them and her cheeks filled with a distinctive pink blush.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't --"  
  
"It's fine." Amon said standing up. "I was just leaving."  
  
The dark hunter walked by her without a word to Touko and the blonde sighed quietly. Yet just as Amon's shape threatened to disappear through the door of the apartment, Robin's voice stopped him.  
  
"Amon."  
  
"Michael told me." The dark hunter said before she could begin to explain about the hospital or about what Rica did. "He's from Solomon; there is nothing we can do."  
  
And with that Amon vanished away. Robin sighed and dropped her head, and then she walked over to where Touko stood.  
  
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were busy." The younger girl said.  
  
"No, it's alright." Touko smiled and handed Robin the cup of tea originally intended for Amon. "Here."  
  
"Ringraziarlo."  
  
Touko blinked and then Robin shook her head and sighed. "I'm sorry, I meant Arigato."  
  
Touko laughed and sat down. "It's alright Robin, switching languages must be hard."  
  
Robin nodded. "It's not that. I learned Japanese while in Italy, it's just small things like 'thank you' that I still have trouble with."  
  
Touko nodded and the two sat drinking the tea in silence. Robin sighed and looked out the window at the sky. Less than a hour ago it was clear and blue, now it was dark and rain was building.  
  
Below on the street rain was beginning to fall quietly and as it did Amon got into his car and drove away without a backwards glance.  
  
----  
  
David Rica stood in his hotel room with a sneer on his lips. His sunglasses were off and lying on the nightstand and he stood in front of the old oak dresser looking the mirror at himself.  
  
His face was pale and his hair was dark, but as he looked down at the reflection it wasn't his pale skin or his dark hair that made David Rica look unusual. It was his eyes. Only his eyes knew the truth about what happened. Only his eyes told the grizzly story of David Rica's life.  
  
Only his eyes told what kind of horrors he had seen and what kind of horrors were contains within his memories. Memories are an odd thing, people love them, and they live for them. People spend years when they are old, simply sitting and thinking about, trying to relive their memories.  
  
Yet David Rica's memories were the kind no one would want to relive.  
  
The STN Reviewer from Solomon screamed and punched the mirror before him, watching the glass shatter into his hand. Blood trickled down and fell onto the TV guide on the dresser top below him.  
  
With another scream Rica ran into the bathroom and turned the water on at its fullest. Making quick use of his craft he made the water fly up into his face and wash it. The water was cold and it chilled him to his bones.  
  
When at last the water had washed his face he looked into the mirror before him, but still his eyes told the same, horrifically sad story. With a scream of fury and anger he smashed the mirror with his fist, only causing more blood to seep from his old and new wounds on his hands.  
  
He then fell down to the ground and began to cry. He couldn't understand why the darkness inside his eyes wouldn't leave him alone. He couldn't understand why he kept seeing those memories.  
  
They weren't his memories. They couldn't be. They were the memories of a man who had been viciously and brutally murdered in cold blood for doing no more than his job.   
  
The memories of a police officer who had done no more than try to stop some Mardi Gras punks from smoking illegal drugs.  
  
The memories of a man who was dead.  
  
Those were the memories that stared back at David Rica from his eyes.

From his cold, dead eyes.  
  
-------------------  
  
And that, my friends, is chapter two.  
  
I hope everyone enjoyed it and I hope you'll come back for chapter three, which will be done later.


	3. Screaming in the Silence

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter III - Screaming in the Silence**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property.    
  
----------------  
  
It was odd being part of the STN-J in the days of David Rica. You may find Kosaka and Doujima standing around the kitchen together, exchanging rather rude words about the new boss behind his back, instead of working. Or perhaps you'd find Michael could no longer hear Rica over his music, and it wasn't until Rica ripped the headpiece from the boy's ear that he'd even acknowledge him.  
  
Yes, by now, their fifth day with the smug American, the entire of the STN-J hated him. They did it in their own ways, of course. Amon's eyes told how much he hated him. No one could really explain why Amon hated the American, maybe for the reasons everyone else did, maybe for his own, darker reasons. All that was known was Amon looked at Rica with the same look in his eyes he had when he fought with Nobunaga.  
  
Robin was by far the most passionate about her dislike. She had a child's stubborn nature, and she truly didn't like Rica. She would treat him with the same respect and authority she gave to everyone she knew, but at the same time when she voiced her different opinions, the look of burning passion in her eyes told how much she really hated him.  
  
Robin may be the most passionate, but Doujima was the loudest. She had always had a rivalry with Kosaka, but it was nothing compared with the fights she had with Rica. Since the slapping incident, she hadn't been that bold. But it she was obviously a volcano on the verge of exploding. And a volcano that wanted to explode. Already she'd "accidentally" spilled scolding hot coffee on Rica, "misplaced" the files he had been looking for, and somehow his car keys ended up in the garbage disposal.  
  
Karasuma was the quietest about her dislike, but anytime she'd pass Rica her nose would life into the air as if she smelled something foul, and her eyes would narrow in distaste for him.   
  
Today Robin and Doujima, the most advent STN-J members in their hatred of Rica, were sitting at the bar at Harry's. True, they should be at work right now, but that was only a minor detail.  
  
"And then the bastard shot him, even after Robin had convinced him not to jump."  
  
Doujima, who was in a fury, was finishing telling the tale to the Master of Harry's Place. Master Yuji shook his head and turned away to refill Robin's espresso cup.  
  
"He doesn't sound like a good person." Master Yuji said quietly, almost as if he was speaking to himself rather than the girls.  
  
"He isn't." Robin nodded in agreement. She was tired: she had waited at Raven's Flat for a long time, she had hoped to speak to Michael, but Rica had waited there for so long that she had become too tired to wait for a private moment.  
  
There was the jingling of a bell as the door opened and when Doujima looked over to see who it was her stomach turned over and she gave a low groan. It was Kosaka, the Chief.  
  
Kosaka's eyes were dark and he looked to be in a bad mood, normally if he came in here to find Doujima and Robin doing no more than sitting at the bar drinking espressos, he'd freak out. But if he did that it would mean taking them back to the office, back to the new boss.  
  
"Well? Make room Doujima!"  
  
And so they sat there, the three of them, young Robin to the farthest left still tired and groggy, Doujima, sipping her espresso without words, but obviously thinking of new ways to make David Rica's life miserable, and Kosaka, who was just plain sick of that smug bastard, as he believed Rica to be.  
  
Master Yuji just smiled and filled a third cup. Robin gave another sleepy yawn.  
  
"Well naw." Came a cold draw as the door opened and the bell jingled. All three of them groaned and sighed. "My lil' puppies all called in sick, but you don't look too sick ta me."  
  
David smiled as he walked up behind Kosaka and Doujima. His dark sunglass-coated eyes were on Robin, however.  
  
"I think Sakaki's laziness is rubbing off on the rest of you."  
  
Doujima was obviously infuriated by another reference to Sakaki, who was at that moment still at the hospital, still re-learning how to walk properly.   
  
David Rica smiled broadly, but it was his mistake. He shouldn't have left Michael alone back at Raven's Flat.  
  
----  
  
Michael sat, typing silently at his computer. He wasn't doing the work Rica had assigned him; instead he was in a private chat room with a screen name called "PrettyPony134". It didn't take Michael long to learn who the man at the other end was, and he made no attempt to cover up his laughter at the screen name.  
  
Michael laughed to himself as he typed up a reply to Zaizen, who obviously wasn't amused wherever he was. The tiny IM Messenger came up with a few four letter words and the simple explanation that if Saunder's was monitoring their computer logs, he would never in a million years guess who it was.  
  
Until Michael so kindly pointed out that now, if Saunder's was reading the records, he would know. After a few more four letter words the boss or "PrettyPony134" as he tried to disguise himself as, gave Michael strict orders. Check out Rica.   
  
It wouldn't be too hard since Rica was on his way to Harry's to bust Robin and Doujima.  
  
Fifteen minutes later Michael had brought up Rica's records and had read, re-read, and read them a third time. Everything checked out. Jackson David Rica, Age 27, born on January 15th, 1976 in Louisiana, America. He had become a STN-J operative after discovering his powers on April 6th, 1993. After an accident on a case, he had a kidney transplant on September 21, 1997.  
  
None of this was odd, it was all perfectly checked out and it fit all records Michael could find, hospital, police, STN-J, they were all perfectly balanced and it would have taken someone a lifetime to have forged records this well.  
  
Still, something didn't sit well with the young hacker. Maybe it was just his hopes. He hoped for a reason to get rid of Rica, he wanted so badly to find out Rica wasn't who he said he was.  
  
And yet, he was.   
  
Michael sighed, ready to email his bosses "secret" screen name with the bad news when something caught his eye. Something in Rica's Witch Hunting Records.  
  
All Witch Hunter's Records contain a detailed list of any and all witches captured or killed by the hunter. Usually a long list of names. And on Rica it was no exception. Names were spanned out on a long list.  
  
Julian Monroe, Oscar Flemings, John Copra, Sori Yujifuka, Kenshin Hakunobi, Roger Smith, Drake Wilds, Miroku Houshi, the list went on and on, with three small names at the end. Adolf Norris, Sarah Rhodes and Yukobi Goyle.  
  
Sarah Rhodes had been killed by Rica when he and Saunders had first arrived, and Goyle was the suicidal witch whom Rica had shot in front of Robin. They checked out. But the name Adolf Norris didn't.  
  
Something about that name stuck out in Michael's mind. Something about Norris.  
  
Where had he heard that name before? He knew it was somewhere in his mind.   
  
And then he remembered where he'd heard Norris' name before. He couldn't be sure, but it wouldn't be hard to find out. His nimble fingers and swift eyes flew once more trying to type away as fast as he possibly could. He had to find out. He had to be sure.  
  
He grabbed open his communicator and quickly called Robin. He knew there was a chance Rica was there, but this was more important.  
  
"Robin!"  
  
"Michael? What's wrong?"  
  
"Robin, listen, I don't have time to explain, just call Amon, and tell him to get back to the Flat as fast as he possibly can!"  
  
Michael vaguely heard Robin speaking again, but he never heard her words, because at that moment he saw the reflection of a man in the computer screen.  
  
The last thing Robin heard from the end of Michael's communicator was a scream and a gunshot.  
  
Then it all went silent.  
  
----  
  
Rica was sitting smugly behind Doujima and Kosaka, both of whom looked angry when Michael's call came in. He, like everyone else, turned to Robin as the hacker's excited voice spoke over the communication device in Robin's petite hand.  
  
While the hacker shouted his brief commands and Robin's face grew puzzled and then troubled, he only sat and smiled.  
  
And when the gunshot echoed in the communicator, followed by a evil silence that did not bode well, when the eyes and angry faces of the STN-J members turned to him, obviously believing he was involved, he only smiled.  
  
"Naw I know what y'all are thinking but I'm standing right hyah." He said with an evil grin.  
  
Robin had not spoken, she had not turned, she only stared down at the blank screen on the comm. She only sat in silence, an overwhelming feeling of horror in her heart and a wave of sickness engulfing her.  
  
"Michael. . ."  
  
Her voice was so quiet and so small that no one but she heard herself say it. She just stared in mute horror.  
  
----  
  
Amon and Karasuma were in downtown, hunting a Witch believed to be responsible for killing her husband and then magically disposing of the body when the call came through. It was Rica, and from the second he spoke Amon grew bitter.  
  
"Naw Amon, you there?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Amon's voice was cold and short and gave a wordless warning that if Rica was wasting his time there would be hell to pay.  
  
"That geek kid's been shot. You might wanna take a look at that."  
  
Amon narrowed his eyes, he had realized he meant Michael in a instant and quickly he jumped up and ran into his car and started the ignition.  
  
"Karasuma, get in!"  
  
----  
  
The second Robin stepped off the elevator into the main room of Raven's Flat; she realized a lot of things very quickly.  
  
Firstly, she noticed that Michael was gone, and she noticed the bullet hole in the computer screen and the two similar bullet holes in the computer's hard drive, she also noticed the spatter of warm red juices, just like the same liquid that hit her face when Rica had shot the suicidal witch the other day at the hospital, and she also noticed the trail of blood leading away from the computer and up towards Zaizen's office.  
  
She was vaguely aware of Doujima, Kosaka and Rica who were moving around the room, their eyes noticing all of the things she had already realized. She didn't care. As fast as her young legs would carry her, Robin Sena ran up the stairs following the blood.  
  
Once she reached Zaizen's office she saw the body. Whose body it was, she didn't know. It was a tall man with long red hair, much darker than hers. He also had three bullet holes in his chest and was completely dead.  
  
Her eyes then zipped over to Zaizen's desk, where the drawer in which he kept his own gun, (a Colt Python rather than an Orbo) and several bullets scattered on the ground, as if someone had loaded the gun in a hurry and had been sloppy.  
  
When these sights fell on her eyes she knew right away what happened. The intruder had shot Michael, who had ran for the stairs. The intruder waited and destroyed the computer, obviously wanting to get rid of whatever it was Michael had discovered, and then followed him.  
  
Michael had grabbed the gun, loaded it sloppily, and shot the man when he came to finish the job.  
  
Robin saw a lot of things as her nimble eyes looked around, but the one thing she didn't see was any trace of Michael other than the smeared blood on his keyboard.  
  
----  
  
Michael was in pain.  
  
He never imagined that being shot could hurt quite so much, but it did hurt. It felt like a thousand small people were running around his shoulder, stabbing him with thousands of tiny knives. He could hear the cruel laughter of the mean little people inside his shoulder.  
  
His eyes were having a hard time adjusting to the bright light of the sun. He lost his sunglasses and he hadn't been out of the office in the middle of the day in a long time. True, he and Robin had gone to Harry's during the ordeal with Nobunaga, but most of the time they had been out was late at night when he took her home.  
  
Robin. He groaned thinking about her. She didn't know. She didn't know what he knew. And she was still with Rica.   
  
She was in danger, and that made the pain in Michael's heart worse than the pain in his shoulder.  
  
The woman he loved was in danger.  
  
It never occurred to Michael that this was the first time he truly admitted to himself that he loved Robin Sena, all that occurred to him was the fact that David Rica was probably the most dangerous witch in all of Japan.  
  
Hell, David Rica was the most dangerous witch in the entire World.  
  
-----------------


	4. Lonely Days I Could Not Find a Friend

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter IV - Lonely Days I Could Not Find A Friend**

**  
  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property.   
   
----------------  
  
Robin did not speak.  
  
All of the STN-J agents were sad and angry at what had happened. None of them, except David Rica, seamed to believe Michael was dead. Doujima insisted that he was fine, and he'd turn up very soon, but it was clear she didn't know if she truly believed her own words.  
  
Karasuma, who had used her powers at once all over the place, was horrorstruck. After touching the keyboard she could feel Michael's fear and anger, and after touching the Zaizen's gun (which had been found near an emergency exit of the Flat) she confirmed what Robin had already guessed.  
  
As for Robin herself, she just sat in Michael's computer chair, not saying a word to anyone or looking at them for several minutes. Naught but one single tear that fell from her eyes and stained her cheeks.   
  
Zaizen and Saunders, who had been at the Factory, arrived soon and Zaizen was beyond any anger Amon had ever seen him at before. Cleary Zaizen no longer cared about the Solomon Review Agents and he had taken charge again, instantly ordering Amon to find Michael.  
  
"Naw, naw." Rica said suddenly. "The boy is obviously dead; he would have bled out all of his life by now."  
  
"Shut up."  
  
Amon and Zaizen both had been ready to say something to Rica, and Doujima looked as if she may go for her gun, but all of them froze when they heard Robin's quiet voice command the Solomon Agent to silence himself.  
  
"Did you say something lil' puppy?""  
  
Robin didn't turn her head to look at him, she didn't move at all. She only repeated herself, her voice full of a tone that was a mixture of fear, sadness and terrifying anger. "Shut up."  
  
Never before had Robin been so rude, directly or indirectly to anyone since she arrived at Raven's Flat and started her job at the STN-J. Most were at a loss for words when she suddenly spoke, but Rica's smug smile only appeared.   
  
"I'd watch what you say to me lil puppy or--"  
  
"David." Saunders said quietly, holding up a fat hand. Rica shut up.  
  
"Amon." Robin said, standing up. It seamed that Rica's now usual rudeness had shaken her from her trance. She didn't wait for Amon to ask her what she wanted; instead she just grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the elevator.  
  
Amon didn't have to ask. He knew where they were going.  
  
To find Michael.  
  
----  
  
Michael was unsure as to what had happened or where he had gone. The last memories that really stuck out were of him, Michael, taking the life of the strange attacker.   
  
Michael grunted. His right shoulder was still burning and bleeding and he knew he had to find a doctor soon or he'd wind up dead. He looked around and realized at once where he was. How could he not? He had lived there for years, the many years before the STN-J.  
  
Delaney Street. The street his life had started on in a small apartment with a cheep rent. This is where he had taken his first breath and opened his eyes for the first time.  
  
Would Delaney Street be where he took his final breath and closed his eyes for the last time?  
  
No. Michael wouldn't let himself die. He wouldn't let himself die here. Not like this. Because he was the only one who knew the truth. He was the only one who knew that if not stopped, David Rica would kill the entire STN-J, like he tried to kill Michael.  
  
Of course, the man who shot Michael and had in return been shot by Michael was not David Rica, but Michael had a sneaky suspicion that the man was working for Rica. A hired assassin.  
  
With a groan he felt himself become dizzy from the blood loss, and he felt his body become slack and weak. His face was pale and he could hardly support his body weight, despite the fact he was naturally slender.  
  
Michael's feet seamed to know the way however. He had already arrived at the apartment building and climbed up to the third floor, apartment B7. Before he realized it Michael was knocking on the door, praying that he would see his mother's loving face staring back at him.  
  
Yes, part of Michael knew that wouldn't happen since part of him remembered that the mother was dead and she would not be coming back, but still, a man on the verge of life and death will pray for the impossible.  
  
When the door opened it was opened bye a young woman with dark hair and friendly eyes. Michael stared in disbelief.  
  
"Ma . . . "  
  
And then he fainted.  
  
----  
  
Rica was now back in his hotel room. He was supposed to be looking for Michael, but he didn't care about Michael Lee.  
  
No, not true. He cared about _killing_ Michael Lee, but he didn't care much for saving him. Besides, he had a phone call to make. Walking over to the bed stand he grabbed the phone and dialed the international operator, and was connected in a matter of minutes to a Louisiana phone number, in New Orleans.  
  
"Yes?" Said a cold drawing voice on the line.  
  
"Sir, I have some, unpleasant news." Rica said all sarcasm and smugness gone from his voice and replaced by fear. There was a pause and then the cold draw spoke again.  
  
"What is it Peter?"  
  
"Naw sir." Rica said quietly. "It wasn't my fault, but one of the STN-J operatives knows."  
  
A second pause, and then: "Knows? Knows how much?"  
  
"He doesn't know about you, but he knows I'm a walking cadaver." Rica said bitterly.   
  
A third pause, this time a long one, before: "Kill him."  
  
"I tried." Rica pleaded. "But he killed Edmunds and escaped. He was wounded, and we have no record of him at any Hospital. He'll bled to death."  
  
"No." This time there was no need for a pause. "Peter, you will kill him. If you don't then I shall return you to as you were before I came to you."  
  
Jackson David Rica shuddered at the thought. "I will kill him sir."  
  
"Good Peter." The cold draw spoke. "Do not call again until he is dead."  
  
"Yes sir." Rica said,  
  
"And Peter?"  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Bring me his eyes."  
  
"Yes sir." Rica said as he took off his sunglasses and stared into the mirrored reflection of his own dead eyes.  
  
----  
  
Robin looked out of the window of Amon's car with worried eyes. And Amon silently had to admit to himself that he had never seen the girl beside him before. He had met Robin Sena the Witch Hunter, and Robin Sena the Teenager, but he'd never seen Robin Sena the Lover.  
  
Amon, while he didn't look it, knew a great deal about love. He had been in love before, once, and while that was personal (to Amon "Personal" means just that, never share it with anyone) he could relate to Robin. He knew that she loved Michael. It became clear to everyone the second Robin had heard the gunshot followed by silence.  
  
Robin's eyes did not cry, they did not shed tears. Tears were foreign to her and she did not need them. She had been raised in a Convent and she had been taught for as long as she could remember that everything happens for a reason.  
  
She had also been taught that prayer was a power greater than any. (A point Father Juliano tried to make when she was six and began setting things on fire out of anger), and right now Robin was praying that Michael was alive.  
  
She knew perfectly well that a month ago, while she lay beneath the covers of her bed, that he had kissed her forehead, no, before that, she remembered while looking for Kurata the Mummy-Man and how he had confided in her about his past. She knew that he loved her.  
  
And she knew that she loved him.  
  
Robin had never had a boyfriend, nor had she ever "kissed" someone (unless you counted the peck on the check she'd given Michael a month ago), she had never had sex, she had never dated, and she had never even had a crush.  
  
Then she met Michael. And that changed. Now she was in love. She wasn't dating him she hadn't "kissed" him and she had skipped the crush stage completely. She was just in love with him.  
  
And now he was gone, maybe forever.  
  
Normal people her age worried about breaking up with their boyfriends, not whether the person they secretly loved would die of a gunshot wound. Then again, normal people her age couldn't create fire with their minds and didn't hunt witches for a living.  
  
"He's fine."  
  
Robin was broken from her thoughts as she turned around to the dark haired driver of the car. Amon's words may not sound like the kind of things that would calm her down or help her forget her worries, but somehow they did.  
  
----  
  
Michael opened his eyes to see a familiar roof. It was the roof he awoke to every day of his pre-STN life. It was the roof of his bedroom. _His bedroom_.   
  
Michael sat up awake; suddenly the memories of David Rica, the shooting, Robin, wandering to his old neighborhood, and fainting on his mother's doorstep all came rushing back. He looked around for her, but he was disappointed.  
  
It wasn't he mother sitting in the chair next to his bed. It was a woman, a young one, around his age, with the same dark, silky hair that his mother had had. It was a woman who had dragged the tired hacker into her house and removed the bullet from his arm.  
  
It wasn't his mother but he knew her. He smiled; he hadn't seen Jeri in years, obviously because he was now confined to STN-J headquarters. Jeri Lee, Michael's favorite cousin smiled back at him.  
  
"Hey." Michael said offhanded.  
  
"You don't write." Jeri said upset. "You don't call, you worry your entire family to death and then one day out of the blue you show up on my doorstep bleeding like a dog that got into a fight."   
  
"I love you too." Michael's sarcastic reply came and he laughed. Jeri would have leaned over and hugged him, but his arm was now in bandages. Michael noticed these bandages and he became curious.  
  
"I'm a nurse, remember?" Jeri said noting the expression on his face. "Good thing too."  
  
Michael sighed and laid his head back. "Can I use your phone?" His eyes were closed as he spoke.  
  
"Sure, I'd love for you to stay for dinner, we haven't talked in years and I'd love to catch up with you." Jeri was just as sarcastic as her cousin. Michael sighed and looked at her with eyes full of worry and she knew he was busy.  
  
"Sure Mike." She reached down and picked up her black leather purse, digging around for a moment she found her cell phone and then tossed it to Michael, who he bested to bow without moving and began to dial Touko's number.  
  
"Hello?" Touko's voice answered on the third ring.  
  
"Is Robin there?"  
  
"Michael!" The sound of Touko dropping and breaking whatever she had been holding was heard as she gasped out his name. "No, she called; she's with Amon, out looking for _you_!"  
  
Michael sighed and cussed quietly. Touko spoke. "Michael, are you okay? What happened?"  
  
"Touko, I can't say over the phone. Just . . . tell Robin I'm okay, next you see her, okay?"  
  
It was Touko's turn to cuss, before saying: "Michael you need to call her."  
  
"She --"  
  
"Michael." Touko said quietly. "Trust me about this, I know women, I am one, and I know the way Robin talks about you. She loves you."  
  
Michael sighed. "I know. And I love her but if I come back she'll be in danger." Jeri raised a brow but he ignored her. This conversation was too painful and he had lost too much blood.  
  
Michael simply hung up.  
  
----  
  
It was raining now, as if the God was responding to the many questions in Robin's prayers by showing her this bad omen. Robin sighed. She loved the rain, but today it only served to make her feel worse than she had before.  
  
She knew it was impossible to find Michael when the rain washed away any trail of blood they could have once followed, and especially when she couldn't even see more than three feet, but still, she had to try. She couldn't not try.  
  
Suddenly the ringing of Amon's cell phone broke her thoughts. She turned around and looked at him for a moment, but he said nothing as he brought the phone to his ear.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Amon." Touko's voice said. "Michael just called me."  
  
Amon's eyes became wide. "_What?_" He said as he parked the car on the side of the rainy rode. Robin looked at him with questioning eyes.  
  
"He wanted to talk to Robin, but I told him she wasn't here and he hung up."  
  
Amon swore. He was very good at swearing when he wanted to be. He looked over at Robin and his eyes said everything. He spoke a goodbye to Touko and hung up.  
  
"Michael is alive."  
  
Robin closed her eyes and a feeling of relief spread over her. The knot in her stomach loosened and she felt herself almost smile. The next words that Amon spoke, however, erased her smile.  
  
"He called for you, but he didn't say where he was."  
  
Robin felt the knot reform inside her. "Why would he--"  
  
"Rica." Amon said. She turned to him. "I'm sure he has something to do with this. Michael knows it. Don't tell Rica he's alive."  
  
Robin nodded. She understood. She wouldn't allow Rica to get away with whatever it was he was up to. That was a promise. A promise to a friend. No, a promise to a lover.  
  
A promise to Michael.  
  
----  
  
Michael had spent the last few minutes explaining as much as he could to Jeri, who had so far learned that Michael was involved with the STN-J (she had no clue what the STN-J was, however) and that he had been shot doing "Government Work."  
  
She had been interested in this, but she had been much more interested in who "Robin" was. She had heard Michael's phone call to Touko, and as soon as Michael had said that he "Loved her", Jeri had become very curious. The second Michael was off the phone she bombarded her cousin with questions.  
  
"Look." Michael said at last, growing angry. "I'll call you next week."  
  
"The hell you will." Jeri was standing with on hand on her hip and a expression that reminded him of the night Doujima had pried into their lives. Then his biggest problem had been trying to deny to Doujima that he liked Robin. Now his biggest problem was trying to stay alive long enough to warn Amon that David Rica was going to kill them all and then murder hundreds of thousands of more innocent people in just a week.  
  
His eyes loomed out the window at the rainy street. His cousin had fixed him up with her first aid kit and her nurse's knowledge, but he still felt miserable. His arm was still in bandages and he was still sad.  
  
But he had no time to waste.  
  
He grabbed the phone once more and dialed a number. It wasn't Amon's. He couldn't remember the exact number of Amon's cell phone, but he would have to keep trying. And so he did. He dialed wrong four more times before he heard a familiar voice answer, but it wasn't Amon.  
  
It was Robin.  
  
----  
  
After Touko's call, Amon had sped off again. He had driven down the rainy streets and muddy roads until he reached Harry's Place. Master Yuji knew quite a bit and could more-than-likely help them. He had given Robin his cell phone, just in case Touko called again.  
  
Robin had simply sat there, while Amon went inside. Her emerald eyes stared out of the watery-window, her entire body filled with a sadness that would not go away. She needed to focus.  
  
She now knew Michael was alive, but he was still missing, and obviously he was still in danger. She wanted no more than to see him, to hold him, to know that he'd be alright.  
  
She remembered all their midnight rendezvous. She remembered the sound of his fingers typing as they sat drinking coffee and eating donuts by the dim buzzing light of the computer's monitor.  
  
She felt herself begin to cry. She hadn't cried once in years. She hadn't cried when Sakaki shot her, or when she say goodbye to the Convent in Italy, she hadn't cried since she was a child. And yet now, realizing that Michael was out there somewhere, hurt and alone, she wanted to cry.  
  
Then the phone rang in her petite hands and she was brought back to her senses. She grabbed open the phone and brought it up to her face.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
There was a long pause, and then she heard a voice that forced out the tears she had been biting back.  
  
"Robin."  
  
"Michael."  
  
They sat there, Michael in his bed, and Robin in the car seat, both staring into the same rainy sky, both simply relieved to hear each other's voices, and both of them waiting for the other to speak.  
  
"I'm okay." He said at last.  
  
"I'm glad." She responded.  
  
"Robin, listen, I can't talk on the phone, I can't be sure Rica isn't monitoring your calls, but I need to see you, and Amon."  
  
Robin nodded, though he couldn't see it. She understood. And at the mention of Rica's name she hated him even worse. He was involved in this and her angry passion for his hatred only grew.  
  
"You and Amon have to meet me, tonight, in the park by your apartment."  
  
Robin spoke quietly. "Okay. We'll see you there."  
  
"Good."  
  
There was another pause, this one even longer, and then at last he spoke.  
  
"I'll see you tonight."  
  
And then he hung up.  
  
Michael Lee sighed and shook his head. Why, oh why couldn't he just tell her that he loved her? Maybe he wanted to tell her in person, when he could hold her, and kiss her, and be with her.  
  
Maybe . . .  
  
----  
  
Karasuma and Doujima knew none of them. They did not know that Michael was alive, and they did not know that David Rica was already plotting their deaths. They knew none of the many twist and turns in the giant jigsaw puzzle that was life.  
  
They were at Raven's Flat, calling hospitals and homeless shelters, the police, looking for any sigh of Michael. Then they heard the elevator door open and Karasuma turned in time to see Sakaki walk into the room.  
  
"Sakaki!"  
  
Sakaki was wearing his uniform, and he looked ready to hunt a witch. He knew nothing about Michael getting shot, and Karasuma did not want to tell him.  
  
"Doctors released me." He said with a smile. "Who ya hunting?"  
  
"Michael." Doujima said, walking up from behind Sakaki and handing him a stack of paper. "Call these shelters and see if they've seen him."  
  
Sakaki blinked. "Michael? Our Michael?"  
  
"No Michael Jackson." Doujima rolled her eyes. Though, Michael Jackson was indeed a witch (how else do you explain that man's face?), she had meant it as a joke. A joke. Doujima sighed. She needed to make jokes. It was the way she kept her mind off the horrible truth of Michael being gone, maybe being dead . . .  
  
"What the hell happened?" Sakaki demanded at once.  
  
"Doesn't matter."  
  
All eyes turned to where David Rica stepped off the elevator. All eyes were full of hatred, but none more than Doujima who looked ready to kill him on sight with her bare hands.  
  
"What do you mean 'doesn't matter'?" Karasuma spat. "Michael needs our help!"  
  
"We." Rica explained. "Are Witch Hunters. Michael is not a Witch."  
  
"Go to hell!" Doujima shouted, and for a moment Sakaki thought he saw her reach for her gun, but Rica merely smirked.  
  
"The Witch is named Yoko Juribari; she killed her husband and his business partner, now she's going after the other one." He spoke ignoring their glares of hate and malice. "Mr. Saunders says he is sorry but the four of us must go after Juribari before we look for Lee."  
  
"Well Saunders can go straight to hell." Doujima said in a sort of cheery-sarcasm. "Because we're looking for Michael."   
  
Rica smirked. "Somehow I guessed you'd say that." He reached down to the holster that contained his nine millimeter inside his jacket, but at that moment the phone rang. No one answered it but the machine finally got it and Amon's voice filled the room.  
  
"Saunder's called, we can't make it on the Witch Hunt, Karasuma you all go with Rica, we'll be along later. We think we have a lead."  
  
Of course, Karasuma, who knew Amon well, had realized what the message meant. It meant they had talked to Michael and David Rica was dirty, but he couldn't talk openly about it.   
  
Doujima sighed. Rica smirked his smug smirk.  
  
"Then will you be coming after all or should I tell Mr. Saunders to, what was it, 'go straight to hell?"  
  
Doujima growled but Karasuma held her back. She had got the message and she knew that Rica was evil. She also knew he may have more partners like the one who shot Michael, and she couldn't take that chance.  
  
"We'll come on the Hunt." She said, and shot knowing glances at Doujima and Sakaki.  
  
Rica looked somewhat disappointed as he took his hand off the handle of his gun. "Yeah, well then let's go mah puppies. We'll be undercover on a yacht."  
  
Karasuma had realized that being on a Yacht, in the Bay, in the Rain, with Water-Craft using David Rica, who was evil, was a very bad idea, but she had no choice.  
  
Rica smirked. He already knew about Michael and Robin's meeting in the park at Midnight. He also knew that when they met in the park they, and Amon, would all be murdered by his associates and around that same time he would kill the rest of them.  
  
In a few short hours the STN-J all be dead.  
  
-----------------------****


	5. The Rain

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter V - The Rain**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, and David Rica© are all my property. **   
-------------------  
  
Robin's chest felt as though a painful knot had been loosened.   
  
She and Amon were now flying down the road in the old black car. The meeting with Michael was still a few hours off, but Robin had pestered him into getting there early. She thought that maybe if she showed up early she'd see him sooner. The intelligent, practical young woman that Robin had matured into knew that this was a very childish thought, but for once she wanted to be childish today.  
  
Michael was alive and she would see him soon. Of course, there was still the painstaking processes of telling Michael how she felt about him, and of course any romance would have to wait until David Rica was stopped, but after that . . . just thinking of what could, should and would happen once Rica was gone was enough to make her feel light headed.  
  
She knew that the STN-Japan, like most businesses, had rules against employees dating, but she wondered if they applied for Michael. He couldn't leave work, so of course he would _have to_ date an employee, that or Zaizen expected a young man like Michael Lee to give up any thoughts of love and romance.  
  
Robin hesitated, yes; Zaizen very well may expect that out of Michael. She hoped not. She truly hoped that the office would not give them trouble. These were the worries on Robin Sena's mind. Not the worry that Michael wouldn't feel the same way (She knew perfectly well he did) and not the worry that David Rica would, in fact, kill them all (Amon was more than happy to stop Rica).  
  
Still, she should have been more cautious.  
  
----  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Jeri, it's dangerous."  
  
"That's why I'm coming to keep an eye on you."  
  
"It's Government business!"  
  
"You just want to be alone with your girlfriend."  
  
Michael let out a swear and slammed his left fist into the table. He hated using his left hand for everything, but since a bullet had pierced his right shoulder he didn't have any real choice in the matter. He stared into the eyes of his cousin and he sighed. She wanted to come with him, partially to protect him, and partially to see who this "Robin that he loved" was.  
  
He swore that Jeri was Doujima's long lost sister sometimes. Thought Jeri was responsible, and never a slacker, she was also annoying and full of gossip and fashion tips.   
  
Michael sighed. He didn't want to get his cousin involved in this, he knew once he told the others the secret of David Rica and his cold, dead eyes, that Rica would try to kill them. He had to keep Jeri out of the STN world.  
  
"Mike?"  
  
"Look Jeri, no matter what you say you're not coming." He said flatly. "It's much too dangerous."  
  
Jeri smiled a grim smile that made Michael's stomach churn. She was coming; she had some unseen trump card Michael had not planned on.  
  
"How will you drive the car with one arm in a sling?"  
  
Michael sighed and swore. He should have seen that coming, but he did not. For all his wisdom Michael could overlook those little things and when he did that is when things became complicated. He searched his mind for a reason, for any reason, why she could not come.  
  
But he had no reason.  
  
"You drive me to the park and then you leave, got it?"  
  
"Sure." Jeri said, giving her cousin a peck on the cheek. "As soon as I decide if this 'Robin' is good enough for you."  
  
"Jeri!"  
  
But she was already out the door and on her way to the car.  
  
----  
  
-**** Two And a Half Hours Later** -  
  
Sakaki was uncomfortable.  
  
Not only did he have to wear the ugliest suit he'd ever laid his eyes on (a combination of maroon with an olive tie), but his stomach still hurt from before. He knew the nurse had said he was fine to leave the hospital, but she had been under the impression that he would go home and rest like a good boy, not go on an undercover Witch Hunt.  
  
Yoko Juribari, twenty-seven, white female, blue eyes, black hair, and the ability to cut things with her mind. She had already slashed the wrists and throat of her husband and one of his business partners, and now she was after the other business partner.  
  
Apparently she had been cheating on her husband with not one, but both of his best friends and partners in business. They found out about each other and both planned on going to her husband. A divorce would come and she'd get none of the money in the divorce when it came to that.   
  
It was a motive many criminals had used before for murder, of course most of those criminals didn't have the power to cut things with thought, something she could do. Yet it wasn't the idea of fighting a witch who could slice him with her brain that worried Sakaki.  
  
It was Rica.   
  
The only experience he had with David Rica was that day in the hospital when the Reviewer made Doujima so angry she slapped him. He knew that Doujima had a temper, but to make her lose it like _that_ was something rare.   
  
The hunt was on a boat, in the middle of the bay. The Yacht Club the Witch's husband belonged to had a personal Yacht Party. The huge boat's deck was covered in tables full of finger foods and a tall chandelier hung overhead. It was a beautiful, gold engraved chandelier.   
  
The yacht had a small roof over half the deck, which was where the chandelier and the food tables were, and the other half was roofless and pointed like a triangle.  
  
The Yacht itself was a pearly white and shined like . . . well, like something white. Sakaki was really too tired and too worried about other things to concentrate that much about a stupid boat.  
  
His eyes flicked around the deck. There were several high class society types on board, but none of them matched the picture of the witch. He was beginning to think she was just a hoax Rica created to pull them away from the hunt for Michael. Michael was still missing, and while Sakaki hadn't been there to see the hacker's blood spattered all over the broken computer, the horrified look in the eyes of Karasuma and Doujima was enough to tell him that their hacker was in serious danger.  
  
If only he knew that he was in more danger than Michael.  
  
----  
  
Robin was fidgeting.  
  
She sat on an old park bench that had once been a majestic chestnut brown, but now it was faded and weather stained. She looked around the park, in the distance she could see the church she attended every morning. _I didn't go today._ She reminded herself. Then again, how could she be expected to go to church today when the man she loved was in danger?_  
  
The man I love._  
  
Robin reflected on these words and had at last made up her mind. She did love Michael. She loved him and she needed him. It had taken two months, and the combination of her getting shot by Sakaki and his getting shot by Rica, but she had finally realized her love for him.  
  
Here, sitting on a weather stained bench on an old dirt path in the midst of a lush green wood, the same wood she had battled the painting witch in, as a light rain fell around her, dampening her hair, she had finally decided she loved him. Now all that was left to do was tell him. And stop Rica of course.  
  
She cast a half glance at Amon. He stood about twenty yards away, one gloved hand reached deep into his jacket, no doubt holding the handle of his gun ready to draw and fire at a moments notice, the other hand was at his side. Robin wondered for a second what he would say. He was their boss, well, _her_ boss. Really Amon and Zaizen. Would they allow an office romance? Would Amon stop her? Would Zaizen stop Michael?  
  
She prayed they wouldn't.  
  
"_Robin_!"  
  
The reddish-blonde haired young woman spun around to her right so quickly that she creaked her neck. The next few seconds between standing up, running over to him and embracing Michael in a tight hug were surreal.  
  
----  
  
Jeri drove in a hurry, but with care. Michael insisted that they leave at least two hours early and just drive around in circles the time before the meeting, in case they were being followed. She merely glanced at her cousin, who sat in the back seat leaning up against the window. The rain had stopped for a while, but it had started up once again.  
  
As Michael got out of the car he turned to his cousin and looked her in the eyes. "Stay here."  
  
She nodded, but he wondered if she really would. With no time to ponder this any more, he turned around and began walking towards the woods. He had no clue where Robin would be waiting, but he had to find her.  
  
The light rains fell over his hair and caused it to lie flat on his head, his sunglasses were fogged with the tears of the sky but he didn't care. The only thing he really cared about now was seeing a familiar face. The bandages that strapped his right arm to his chest were now damp and he hoped they'd hold long enough for him to find Robin and Amon._  
  
And Amon_.  
  
While he did have to speak to Amon, and he knew that stopping David Rica, or Peter Pummel as he was likely to be called in reality, was more important than his love life, part of him still wished it was only Robin he was going to see.  
  
While these thoughts were tempting he knew he was being selfish. It was then as he was thinking that he saw the bench. The old chestnut bench that had been stained by rain like the rain that fell now.  
  
"_Robin_!"  
  
The next few seconds as she spotted him, ran over, and practically threw herself into his arms was like a blur. He wrapped his one working arm around her back and drew her in close, tucking her head under his chin. He could hear that she was crying the tears she had tried to bite back all day, and he knew that he himself was crying as well. He kissed her forehead and the unspoken vows of love were clear to each other.  
  
Amon said nothing and he didn't move from his spot as the replacement and the hacker held one another. Still, he would soon have to break them up soon. Michael had to share the information about Rica and then he and Robin could do whatever they wanted, Amon didn't care. But the Job came first.  
  
"Michael."  
  
Robin and Michael broke apart at Amon's voice and both of them were flushed. The elder, dark hunter crossed over and stood beside them. His eyes peered past Robin and into Michael's foggy sunglasses.  
  
"Oh, right." Michael looked as if he forgotten why he was here, and in truth he had done just that. "Amon, where is Rica now?"  
  
"On a hunt."  
  
Michael groaned. "Alone?"  
  
"With Doujima, Sakaki and Karasuma."  
  
Michael chained together a few swear words and seamed to forget Amon was his boss as he spat them at him. "What the hell were you thinking!?"  
  
"I was thinking." Amon said his cold voice no different than normal. "That we don't need to cause suspicion."  
  
Michael sighed and shook his head as he spoke. "Amon, Rica isn't who he seams to be. I can't prove anything and I was shot before I could learn much about it, but when I was going over his list of killed witches, I came across the name Adolf Norris."  
  
Amon's eyes narrowed in the same way Michael's had done when he first heard that information. Amon knew that name, he just didn't know from where.  
  
"Remember when you started the Nobunaga case?" Michael said. "You took down Jerald Fletcher, and with him was an Adolf Norris, his partner."  
  
Amon's eyes widened in realization. David Rica hadn't killed Adolf Norris; Amon had sent Norris to the factory.  
  
"Someone has been faking Rica's records. I checked some more names; every name on that list since 1997 has been faked." Michael's face became grim. "Amon, I think it's Calypso."  
  
Robin didn't know the importance of this 'Calypso' but as the name was spoken she gasp, not at what was said, but at Amon's eyes. She could see fear inside his eyes. No, not even fear, it was genuine terror. It was horrible to see someone as fearless as Amon in such fright.  
  
"Who is Calypso--"  
  
Robin question however was cut off. Amon's keen sense of hearing picked up the clicking of footsteps. He grabbed out his gun and whirled around.  
  
Jeri screamed.  
  
"_Damn_ it!"  
  
Michael pushed the gun aloft as Amon's fired it, which was really the only reason Jeri Lee didn't find herself dead. Amon looked at Michael and he sighed.  
  
"My cousin. She helped me out."  
  
Amon looked in a murderous mood but he lowered the gun. Jeri was still standing in shock as if she hadn't believed Michael about the "STN" before now. It was clear that she was scared.  
  
Michael was ready to introduce Jeri to the others (though he didn't want to) when Amon spun around once again and fired before Michael could react. Jeri screamed but the bullet sailed harmlessly beside her and into the bushes behind her slim figure.   
  
"Get back!"  
  
Jeri didn't need telling twice, she ran back behind Michael, who was now being pushed back by Robin. Michael shot her a look of 'I can help' but she looked at him with big eyes and he merely nodded and stepped behind her to safety.  
  
A man burst from the bushes, he wore a black jump suit and carried in his hand an AK-47, the deadliest thing ever to come out of Russia since bad Vodka. His forehead was pale white, but was now adjured with a bullet hole, the bullet Amon had fired. Still, despite a bullet square in the middle of his head the man was still aiming the gun.  
  
"BACK!"  
  
The fear had returned to Amon's eyes and he now attempted to move the others, Robin ducked under his arms, which were now pushing Michael and Jeri to safety. She didn't have her glasses and even if she did in the rain they'd be useless, but still she peered out at the man who was aiming the deadly machine gun.  
  
There was a blast of light as the man caught fire, his entire body burning.  
  
"ROBIN, NO!"  
  
The man was slowed down but not stopped by the fire. Robin's eyes widened in horror as the man clicked the machine gun and began to fire. Amon's swift legs shot out from behind his safety of a tree and tripped Robin, sending her tumbling to the ground and away from the bullets.  
  
The next few moments were a haze in Michael's mind, for once he saw Robin fall he feared the worse and he stopped paying attention to reality. He didn't know how Amon was able to get a confused Robin, a disoriented Michael and a screaming Jeri away form the gunman, nor did he knew how they all wound up in Amon's car, speeding away from the park.  
  
Michael was in the back seat, the unconscious Robin leaning against his shoulder. Jeri was in the front passenger seat and her eyes were watered with silent tears.  
  
Robin stirred at his shoulder and opened her eyes. Miraculously she had not been hit by any of the stray bullets, and she smiled up at him. He smile back down at her and kissed her forehead once more. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him gently.  
  
"I love you."  
  
Michael closed his eyes and nodded his head for a moment as she spoke. He was too relived to really understand what she had said for a moment, and even then he was in a surrealistic world. She loved him. _She loves me._  
  
Any response to her confession he might have had was cut short, however, by the sound of a machine gun. The window shattered and Amon cursed very fluently. Michael sunk lower into the seat, taking Robin with him. The bullets sailed above their heads.   
  
Jeri had left her car running, keys in the ignition when she had followed Michael, and the man from the bushes, the man with the machine gun, the man who had been shot and lit on fire, was driving the stolen car following them.  
  
----  
  
Back on the boat Doujima was truly tired. She didn't think there was a witch; she just thought Rica had made up this hunt to keep them from the search for Michael.  
  
It was then that Doujima's headset, like the headsets of Karasuma, Sakaki and Rica began to fill with noise. It was Amon, he said that he, Michael, Robin and Michael's cousin were speeding down the road being chased by a man who can't die who has a machine gun, and that his message for them was to kill Rica.  
  
A moment later they could hear gunshots clearly, and then the phone went dead.  
  
"Well naw." Rica said with a smile. He stood at the end of the deck, Sakaki next to him, while Karasuma and Doujima were back near the foot tables. "That sure was fascinating."  
  
Sakaki went for his gun but Rica was faster, his fist collided with the youth's face and disoriented him. While Sakaki's head spun, Rica kicked him. Rica had paid attention and his kick fell right into Sakaki's waste where bandages were still in place under his clothes from when Nobunaga stabbed him.  
  
Doujima and Karasuma both held their fire, in fear that they'd hit Sakaki, but now with a second kick Rica sent him flying onto the deck. A second later Doujima let out a scream of anger and had fired off her entire clip into Rica's chest. Even at the distance every last one of her bullets connected with him.   
  
Rica merely laughed.  
  
Karasuma and Doujima's eyes both widened in horror as Rica reached into his pocket and pulled out his nine millimeter handgun. The two ladies jumped back, kicking the food tables back and using them as shields. The people who had been on the yacht had long since scream and hid, some even jumped overboard.  
  
Rica laughed and fired, not at the table, but at the chandelier above. Three shots and one of them did enough to take the chandelier down, Doujima leapt aside, but Karasuma wasn't fast enough. The chandelier fell on her legs, pinning her down.  
  
Before Doujima could reload her gun, or even move Rica was upon her. He punched her in the gut and then grabbed her shirt collar, lifting her up and pressing her into a wall.  
  
"I never did like you."  
  
Rica smashed the butt of his gun into Doujima's face, causing her to scream as blood trickled down her forehead.  
  
"What are you?" She asked timidly as he beat her a second time.  
  
"Me?" Rica laughed. "I'm one dead son of a bitch." A third pistol whip. "And you're about to be one too."  
  
He raised the pistol for a forth hit, but it never fell. Sakaki had fired and his bullet connected with Rica's hand, causing him to drop the pistol.  
  
"Now that hurt." He said, dropping Doujima and turning, walking slowly towards Sakaki. "I mean, you can't _kill_ me, but pain is still pain."   
  
Then Rica smiled and flipped off his glasses. "Can you swim, boy?"  
  
The cold, gazed over, dead orbs that had once been eyes set inside Jackson David Rica's head, the eyes that once belonged to Peter Pummel, suddenly shined bright with a eerie blue glow.  
  
The boat rocked.  
  
The waves were splashing the side of the boat painfully.  
  
"Cause if you can't, this is really gonna piss you off."  
  
Sakaki looked on in mute horror as the waves around the boat became violent. The rain began to turn to hail as it fell.   
  
And then the haul of the boat cracked in the mighty thrashing water.  
  
David Rica was using his craft to make the Yacht sink.  
  
----  
  
Amon's car flew as fast as a car can fly down the highway, the stolen car of Jeri Lee still at their tail. The man chasing them had one arm hanging from the window, the arm that held the AK. The nozzle of the gun rested on the mirror, keeping it steady and allowing him to use such a fierce gun with one hand.  
  
Bullets shot the windows, the trunk, the gas lines, the tires, the exhaust, every second the chase lasted Amon knew his car was coming closer to death. Then he finally lost control.  
  
Robin closed her eyes tight and hugged Michael even tighter. He kissed her forehead once more.  
  
Jeri screamed.  
  
The car spun and collided with the railing of the highway. They were on the old bridge over the bay, and the car teetered on the edge of death. The front end of the car was hanging towards the waters of the bay, while the back held on to the highway.  
  
The man in the stolen car laughed and droved forward, smashing his car into the rear of Amon's  
  
Amon's car went flying into the bay.  
  
Amon, Michael, Jeri and Robin all fell towards the murky, black waters . . .  
  
----------------------****


	6. When The Gunsmoke Settles

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter VI - When the Gunsmoke Settles**

**  
  
 Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders©, Calypso© and David Rica© are all my property. **  
   
-------------------**  
  
The sky was dark, and the bay waters had finally calmed. It was the oddest thing Takeru Tokomak had ever seen. The entire bay seamed to swell up with an evil force, like the very waters, the tears of the earth, were being controlled by some unseen force.   
  
Then a Yacht had sunk. He had watched from the beach. He had locked up his little convenient store and was walking home in the moonlight down by the beach when he watched the great boat sink. It was like the waves around it grabbed it and squeezed it like a giant hand trying to kill a small animal.  
  
And the boat had been killed.  
  
Now Takeru was standing on the beach, his hand reached into his pocket and grabbed his cell phone. He was calling the police, but he paused. Was this a police matter?  
  
Then he saw something move. His eyes widened as a man began to walk from out of the waves like something from a Sci-Fi movie. The man had trimmed dark hair, and pale skin. He wore an old navy jacket that stretched down to his knees.   
  
"You okay buddy?"  
  
The man looked up at Takeru and Takeru screamed. The man's eyes were . . . horrible. Gray and clouded, like the eyes of a carcass, a dead man. The eyes of death. The eyes of David Rica.  
  
Rica smiled and his eyes flashed with an aqua shaded glow, then a great jet of water shot from out of no where, out of thin air, like a glassy stream of liquid from a hose. It hit Takeru in his mouth and he drowned there, on dry land, the same way Sarah Rhodes had done.  
  
"I'm just fine." Rica smiled as he reached down and picked up the man's cell phone. He quickly dialed a number and waited, after connecting with America, and then Louisiana, he finally reached the ringing phone of a one Doctor C. Calypso.  
  
"Hello?" Came a cold drawing voice.  
  
"Sir, the STN of Japan is gone. They are dead sir, every last one of them."  
  
"And their eyes?" The voice of Calypso asked with anticipation, almost like a child asking for candy.  
  
"I'm afraid we couldn't get them." Rica said timidly. "But we'll get Zaizen's." He added quickly.  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Very well. Take Zaizen's eyes and be back here by Friday."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"And . . . Peter? Did Amon suffer?"  
  
Rica smiled into the phone. "Yes sir."  
  
"Good."**  
  
----**  
  
"Robin."  
  
There was no response.  
  
"Robin."  
  
Still the youth didn't stir.  
  
"Robin."  
  
Finally the petite body of the young craft user began to move, and emerald eyes opened to see the blurry form of Amon standing over her. Her head was spinning and her body felt as if she'd been through a blender, the memories of the last few days, of Rica, and Michael, and the park, and the car chase, and her uncharacteristic worry and confession of love, it all came crashing back. She shot up into a sitting position and began to cough and choke, spitting water out onto her already drenched form.  
  
"Michael, she's awake."  
  
From somewhere else Robin was aware that Michael had now appeared. He looked horrible, his face had new cuts and his already damaged right arm was no-doubt worse off. The bandages had come off and he was holding it at an odd angle. But it was his eyes that made Robin feel the worst. His eyes, no longer clouded by his sunglasses, showed the tired, horrific, expression that had been building for days.  
  
Inside Robin's head it was as if two conflicting forces had appeared. Both of these forces were led by her, fighting on the great plain that was her own soul. One of the forces was her heart, which was shouting what any fifteen year old girl's heart would shout when they survived the brink of death and found the man they love. It told her to break down, to cry, to hug him, to do something.  
  
Yet the other force was her mind. It was not the mind of a normal fifteen year old girl. It was the mind of Robin Sena, who had been taught discipline, and to keep a clear head in danger, and never to let her emotions get in the way of her job. It seamed her mind told her not to do these things. Not to break down.  
  
It seamed these two forces were evenly matched, and right now her heart and brain were giving her a huge headache. She really would prefer just to slip back into darkness, let sleep take her, let herself fall away . . .   
  
But she knew it was _not_ sleep that threaten to take her, it was death.  
  
"Robin, don't you die."  
  
Michael's voice sounded very far away. He was . . . different. He was unlike she had ever seen him before. His eyes filled with horror and tears and it seamed. His face floated before her. The fingers of death reached out and grabbed Robin's body, trying desperately to pull her away from life.   
  
But she did not go.  
  
Instead she opened her eyes once more and put her arms around Michael. She said nothing and she shed no tears, she just simply held him.   
  
They had survived.  
  
Then Robin remembered about Jeri Lee, Michael's favorite cousin.  
  
She was not here.  
  
She did not survive.**  
  
----  
  
Sakaki, as chance would have it, was lying on the same stretch of beach that it seamed the rest of the STN was on. About three miles to his right was the bridge, and beneath it was the small patch of beach where Amon and Michael fought to wake Robin from her sleep.  
  
And about a mile to his left was where Rica had killed the store owner and taken his cell phone. Of course, he could not see any of these things. He could barley see himself in the darkness. It was nighttime, and the rain had ceased at last. He was lying on his back staring at the stars.  
  
His back.  
  
It hurt him worse now that it ever did. And he felt as if his stitches on his waste had come undone. He was in horrible, shooting pain in his back and all he wanted to do was lie there on the beach and never move again.  
  
But he did have to move. His eyes shot down to his right where, about a hundred yards away, lay Doujima. Her blonde hair was wet with both water and blood, and her face was covered in welts from Rica's vicious attack on her.  
  
It felt like it took him years to reach Doujima's battered body, but in reality it was probably only a few minutes. He tried to walk, but he fell, after the third time falling face first into the dirt he decided to crawl to her.  
  
When he finally reached her and looked down her saw that she was not moving, perhaps not even breathing. She was annoying, the worlds biggest baka, and she was undoubtedly the laziest person he'd ever met, but he didn't want her to die. His mind was racked, trying to think of something.  
  
Then it hit him.  
  
CPR.  
  
Sakaki leaned down, ready to blow the life-giving air back into her lungs. His mouth was so close to her lips that it was hard to tell if they were touching or not. He began to revive her, or so he hoped, he prayed the CPR would work. Then he heard a quiet cough and saw her eyes open.  
  
"Not even gonna buy me dinner?" Doujima's voice was weak and she broke into a coughing fit but even here in the middle of the worst possible situation they could be in, she could make jokes.  
  
"You okay?" Sakaki asked.  
  
"Do I look okay?" She snapped back.   
  
"Yes, I'd say you like fine."  
  
"I'm ugly." She sniffed.  
  
Sakaki blinked. "What?"  
  
"I'm ugly. He beat me with that pistol. Now my face is ugly."  
  
Sakaki didn't know whether to comfort her or to tell her off for worrying about her appearance at a time like this. In the end he decided comfort.  
  
"No you're not."  
  
"Yes I am."  
  
"You are not."  
  
"I'm ugly."  
  
"You're beautiful."  
  
"You think so, Romeo?"  
  
"Will you two stop flirting for one minute?" Sakaki and Doujima both turned their heads to the right where Karasuma lay. Her legs were covered in blood from where the chandelier had smashed them. She wore a mingled expression of pain and anger. It had been hard for her to make it to land.  
  
"We're _not_ flirting." Sakaki corrected.  
  
"Yes we _are_." Doujima smiled.  
  
"We are?"  
  
"_I _was flirting."  
  
"I thought I was comforting you."  
  
"So you just said that stuff to make me feel better?"  
  
"Well, yeah."  
  
"So you really don't think I'm beautiful?"  
  
"Gah -- well, no, I mean, yeah, I mean, I _do_, but-"  
  
"Then we're flirting."  
  
"Enough." Karasuma spat.****  
  
----**  
  
Zaizen was angry.   
  
He couldn't contact a single member of his STN team. Michael's tracking device, which was implanted in the dog tag he wore around his neck, had stopped working after the shooting. In his daze after being shot and having to shoot his attacker, he had lost the tags. And as for the rest of the STN-J, their headsets were nothing but static.  
  
Zaizen sat in his office, a Smith & Wesson revolver in his hand. He was alone at the Flat with no one but Kosaka and Saunders here. He had already warned Kosaka that something was going on, and neither of them trusted Saunders.  
  
The sun was rising now and Zaizen was growing tired. He had barley slept in the days since Saunders and Rica arrived, and now he wasn't sleeping at all. With a sighed he stood up and walked away from his desk, slipping the revolver into his pocket. He knew he might need it.  
  
Running down the steps he found Kosaka sitting at his desk, and Saunders sitting not far away. Still Saunders held an old cane in his hand and he was today wearing a horrible pearl suit that made him look devilish.  
  
"Ah, Zaizen, there you are. Come sit down."  
  
"I'd rather not." Zaizen said shortly, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Saunders laughed. "What's wrong with you?"  
  
Before Zaizen ever got a chance to answer what was wrong with him the ding of the elevator sounded, and David Rica walked inside. He was soaping wet from his head to his feet, but in his hand he held a gun. Not the nine millimeter he had carried before, this one was a Colt, the kind the guard down at the front door kept tucked in a compartment of his desk.  
  
"Joseph, it's time." He said at once, and before Kosaka or Zaizen could react he lifted the gun and fired a shot into Kosaka, who gave a grunt as he fell to the ground. Zaizen went for his S&W but Saunders was faster and smashed his walking cane into the back of Zaizen's head.  
  
As blood clouded his vision Zaizen felt himself fall, and in the last fleeting moments of consciousness he could see the smug smile of David Rica.**  
  
----**  
  
Amon was quick on his feet. He knew that whoever it was who had attacked them at the park and continued to chase them on the bridge and kill Jeri was one of Calypso's, and he knew what that meant better than anyone. He had lead Michael and Robin into the alleyways of the city and taken them on a very long, very dark path of back roads and subway tunnels for the last few hours before dawn, at which point they made a break for Harry's.  
  
Robin still had no information on who this Calypso was, but she had no chance to learn anything. Michael was broken up over his favorite cousin's demise and Amon was too busy making sure they weren't attacked again.  
  
When at last, in the rising sunlight, they arrived at Harry's she wondered if it would be open, but a moment after they arrived outside the glass doors, Master Yuji Kobari appeared and opened the door quickly, letting them in before locking the doors behind them.  
  
"Were you followed?" He asked Amon quietly.  
  
"I don't think so. Any word from Zaizen?"  
  
Master Yuji shook his head. "I tried to call his private line but there was no answer. Something is going on at the Flat Amon."  
  
Amon said nothing.  
  
Half an hour later Robin found herself lying sprawled out in one of the booths. She was wearing an old kimono that Yuji had leant her, it belonged to a singer who had sung at Harry's about a year ago and forgot it. Robin was glad to have something dry to change into.  
  
She was alone now. Yuji had tried to send Michael to a hospital, but he flat out refused. Instead he was had vanished off to some part of Harry's that Robin had never been to and was attempting to hack his way into the STN-J's computer banks. Every now and then she could hear him pound his fist in frustration. It was a tiring day, he had been thought many hardships, and he had only one usable hand and combined these things made him quite irritable._  
  
We haven't talked about what happened._  
  
Robin sighed and tried her best to move into a more comfortable position in the booth. She was confused and tired but really she felt left out. She hadn't felt this isolated from the others since she first arrived at Raven's Flat. Michael was busy hacking and she couldn't disturb him, and she had no clue where Amon and Master Yuji had vanished too.  
  
Not long later, after Robin had given up any hopes of rest, (instead she just sat, lighting the candle on the table with her craft over and over again), she heard the sound of footsteps. Turning her petite head she saw Michael and smiled. He looked even worse than he had before, the cuts on his face had band-aids on them and he was now wearing some clothes that he had borrowed, though his arm still looked terrible, but he flashed a weak grin and sat down across from her.  
  
"You okay?" He asked in a weak voice.  
  
"I suppose." She bit her lip. "Are you?"  
  
Michael shook his head. "I will be, eventually."  
  
Robin nodded. She wanted so badly to ask him about what had happened before, or to ask him how the hacking was going, or to try to convince him to go to a doctor (his arm looked horrible) or to ask him who Calypso was, but instead she just sat there staring at him.  
  
"He was a Witch Amon hunted about five years ago." Michael suddenly said. Robin blinked. "Calypso."   
  
Robin nodded now, understanding. Michael could read her like a book, and he was much too tired and in much too bad a mood to talk about the romance that had transpired between them. Instead he decided to explain about Calypso.  
  
"Calypso is a rare breed of Witch. A Necromancer."  
  
Robin blinked. She knew, of course, what a Necromancer was. A Witch with powers over the dead. She had hunted one once with the STN-J, he had been a doctor who used healthy patients to cure sick ones. He targeted drug lords and mobsters to save the lives of healthy people. She had watched him use his powers on himself to save his friend. (See TV show)  
  
Again Michael could guess what she was thinking about. "Not like the guy we hunted a while ago. Calypso was a Pure Necromancer. He had the power to preserve the memories of people inside their eyes."  
  
Robin gasped. "Memories?"  
  
Michael nodded. "Yeah, memories. He would cut the eyes from people who had died horrible deaths and then he would find other people, he'd kill them himself and use their body as a 'vessel', usually a Witch. He'd implant the eyes and memories of the dead person into the vessel body and then use his craft to revive the body. They'd have all the skills and powers of the vessel body, but with the memories of the person who the eyes belonged to."  
  
Michael paused and shook his head.  
  
"The new . . . thing, created with the eyes of one person and the body of another would be practically immortal. They still bleed, and feel pain, but they don't die. Their bodies can heal at an incredible rate. In order to really kill one of these hybrid creatures of Calypso you have to destroy their eyes. Anyway, about five years ago Calypso moved here, to Tokyo. Amon was just a rookie then, it was before my STN days, and anyway, Amon shot Calypso in the face."  
  
"Amon killed him?" Robin blinked. "But then . . ."  
  
"Rica." Michael explained. "Rica had a kidney surgery in 1997; my guess is that's when Calypso made him. Meaning that when Calypso was killed by Amon, Rica was still out there. Calypso must have added some of his Necromancer powers to all of his creations just in case he ever died. Rica must have found Calypso's body and made him into the same kind of creature that he had turned Rica into."  
  
Robin looked mortified. "That's horrible."  
  
Michael agreed. "Yeah, it is."  
  
They sat in silence, reflecting on this.**  
  
----**  
  
Amon looked over at Yuji. They were standing in a back room of Harry's, filled with restaurant supplies, wine bottles, and a old shelf in the back that turned out to be filled with guns.  
  
"Thank you." Amon said as took one of the Orbo Guns from the bottom rack of the shelf. Yuji shook his head.  
  
"You know I'll always help you."  
  
Amon loaded a clip into the bottom of the gun and he tucked it away inside his coat, which was still damp from the river. He had changed into some clothes that Yuji had given him, but he still wore his old jacket.  
  
"Amon, I think you should treat Raven's Flat as a hostile environment." Yuji said wisely. "If Rica is one of Calypso's then he will go back there, and if he is there it will be dangerous."  
  
Amon sighed. "I know how to deal with Calypso."  
  
Yuji nodded. "Yes, I remember. You were just a rookie then."  
  
Amon said nothing.  
  
"But do be careful." Master Yuji urged. "Calypso will have improved in five years."  
  
Amon looked out the window, his eyes full of memories of that day. Of the shooting, of his near death. He shook away any doubts or fears that lingered. Calypso was darkness from his past, but he would not fear it.  
  
"So have I."**  
  
----------------------**


	7. The Fire

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter VII - The Fire**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Joe Saunders**©**, Calypso**©** and the Evil David Rica**©** are all my property. **   
  
-------------------**  
  
The trip to the nearest hospital was, in a matter of words, pure hell.  
  
Karasuma couldn't walk, and Doujima's face had swollen so that she had trouble seeing out of her right eye. Sakaki's stitches, while the wound was almost healed, had come undone and he was bleeding. He knew for a fact that if he passed out the girls would be in even more trouble than ever before, but he had no choice.   
  
Sakaki was the only one strong enough to carry Karasuma, and Doujima walked beside them with a limp (she had injured her leg) and so she leaned against the brown haired boy beside her. Sakaki didn't really mind, he was in good shape and he could easily carry someone like Karasuma, but after being savagely beaten by Rica and then the dazed swim to land as the Yacht sunk, he had lost some of his strength.  
  
The walk was quiet and somber, but quick. They all three knew that if they didn't find some help soon they could be in a very dangerous situation. Of course, they didn't _walk_ all the way to the hospital; mostly they looked for someone who could call an ambulance. But being just before sunrise it was hard to find many people out.   
  
Finally they were able to find an old man who had been walking his dog and was more than happy to call the hospital, and while Sakaki felt himself growing dizzy and his vision was becoming nothing but a blur of color and light, they all made it to the hospital with relative ease.  
  
Doujima was the unhappiest of all; she had _abhorrent_ her time in the hospital after Nobunaga had sent her and Karasuma into a horrid car wreck. She hated hospital food, she truly did. Hospital beds, and those horrible backless gowns all were horrible, but the food was truly hellish.  
  
Sakaki was now lying in one of those horrible beds, wearing one of those horrible backless gowns, waiting for his hellish food as he stared up at the ceiling. The sun was rising now and he wondered if Amon and Robin were okay.   
  
He sighed. Wherever they were they had to be better off than this.**  
  
----**  
  
Robin and Michael sat in silence.  
  
The two youths were still at a small booth in Harry's Place, while the Master of Harry's, Yuji Kobari, had vanished with Amon somewhere. Robin was not too concerned about Amon, however. He could take care of himself better than any of the STN-J. She was worried about Michael, though. His arm was still badly beaten, and while Master Yuji had wrapped it in new bandages, Michael still winced in pain ever few moments as they sat in mute silence at the small oak table.  
  
Robin's eyes fell onto Michael's tired face. It was still young, truly she didn't know how old the hacker was, he had never told her, but she guessed that he was only a few years older than she was. Yet his young face was aged with a tired worry. The pain of the last few days, of being shot, and of watching his cousin die, and from falling into the river out of a car. All of the pain was becoming too much for him. Tiny cuts covered his youthful features and she wondered if they hurt him.  
  
The biggest problem, really, the biggest fear shining in Robin's emerald eyes was what had transpired between the two of them. Memories of the night their "relationship" began were still fresh in both of their minds._  
  
. . . Michael just lay there on the couch and he was happy. He was out of the STN-J building, he didn't have to work, and he had made Robin smile.  
  
He shook his head. He was getting fed up. If he didn't know better he'd say he was developing a crush for his fifteen year old co-worker. Something he couldn't do. Besides the fact she would never go out with him, even if she would, could he really ask her to do that?  
  
To date someone who was confined to the same damn building for the rest of his life? He shook his head. And even besides all of that, she was a co-worker, and office romance was a bad idea.  
  
And still, she was cute, and he did like redheads . . .  
  
"Damn it." Michael sat up and shook his head. He couldn't have a crush on her. That was just . . . wrong.  
  
Still, somehow he was drawn over to the doorway of her bedroom. He looked over at her as she lay there asleep and he forgot all those reason why it wouldn't work, and all he thought about was how peacefully cute she looked while asleep.  
  
Before he knew what he was doing he was at her bedside, and he was leaning down. His lips brushed against her forehead for the slightest of seconds before he came to he came to his senses and walked away.  
  
He walked over to the front door and turned around once last time.  
  
"Goodnight, little Robin." . . ._  
  
Robin closed her eyes. It wasn't like her to be so hung up on things like this. This wasn't the same Robin who had lived in Japan over the past few months. This was a new Robin, a Robin who realized once and for all that she loved Michael and nothing would change that.  
  
"Robin."  
  
Robin was snapped out of her thoughts at Amon's voice. Both she and the hacker sitting across the table from her turned their heads to the far side of the bar where Amon and Master Yuji had appeared from behind a doorway. Amon walked across the room and as he did he spoke orders.  
  
"Come on, we're going after Rica."  
  
Robin and Michael both moved to their feet.  
  
"Michael you're staying." Amon spoke at once without even looking at him.  
  
"The hell I am." The hacker spat bitterly.   
  
"You're injured and you're _not_ a hunter regardless." Amon spoke coldly, turning himself around and looking into Michael's warm, hurt eyes with his emotionless ones.  
  
"I don't care --"  
  
"Michael."  
  
Hearing Robin speak his name seamed to calm the hacker down in a way that nothing else could anymore. He remembered the first day they had worked together suddenly. She had been annoying as hell, which was his first impression anyway. She had messed up his files at the side of his desk and asked too many questions. It seamed odd that that new annoying, rookie replacement for Kate had gone from being nothing more than an irritating co-worker, to someone he would die for in a blink of an eye. Someone he loved.  
  
He could feel Robin's petite hand on his shoulder, his left shoulder thankfully. He sighed and returned to the seat at the booth. He would stay. For her.  
  
Michael gave a small, quiet sigh as he watched Robin and Amon walk out the doors and towards the car that Yuji had allowed Amon to borrow.  
  
"Be careful Robin." He whispered.**  
  
----**  
  
Zaizen's vision was blurry, and his head hurt like hell, but he could see better now. For a moment the Manager of the Factory couldn't remember what had happened or where he was, but memories of Rica and Saunders all came flooding back in a hurry. He blinked twice before he could make out the form of David Rica, who was leaning against a desk.  
  
"Well, welcome back to reality Mr. Zaizen." Rica flashed his smug smile. "Just been having a chat with Joe here about how we should kill you. He reckons we should just shoot you and then cut your eyes from your corpse, but I think we should tear them out while you're alive --"  
  
"My eyes?" Zaizen said, and the twin orbs in question suddenly became wider and filled with the unmistakable look of terror.   
  
"Of course." David said, reached up to his face and pulling the black sunglasses off the glassy orbs of sight that had once been eyes. Now they were gray, cold and lifeless. "Mr. Calypso loves eyes."  
  
Zaizen felt a cold shiver at that name. "Calypso? But he is --"  
  
"Dead?" Rica laughed. "Yeah. But before he came to Japan in '98 he made me in '97. Gave me one of _his own__ eyes_. This gave me some of his own powers. Yeah, you're little Amon killed Mr. Calypso, but I revived him in the same way he revived me. Of course, I had to give up that eye, but he found me a new pair."  
  
Zaizen wanted to scream, he had never been this terrified before. Calypso was alive once more? Calypso was one of the undead? Playing with the powers of life and death, playing with the powers of God? These always made for the worst of the psychos. And Calypso was indeed a psycho.  
  
"Then you're nothing more than a puppet." Zaizen spoke. "A sick puppet of a sicker puppeteer."  
  
Rica laughed. "You know, David Rica was just a body for me. The memories of Peter Pummel, a New Orleans native and police officer who was murdered during Mardi Gras. Those memories beat inside my head. And they drive me _insane._ My body, of course, heals from any psychical pain almost instantly. Part of the powers of Mr. Calypso, but my _mind_ won't heal so easy."  
  
Rica reached out a malice filled finger to Zaizen's chin. "And soon you'll know what I mean."  
  
There was a low laugh as Rica extended his other hand, and vaguely from his bad eyesight Zaizen could see Joseph Saunders hand Rica a long hunting knife. Rica smiled as he brought the knife up and prepared to tear the eyes from Zaizen's still living head.  
  
"Should I cut them out now?" He said with a smile. "Or give you a taste of what hell is like?"  
  
He pressed the knife into Zaizen's cheek, the steel digging deep down into soft flesh. A trickle of blood fell down from the cut and over his neck, onto his shirt and suit jacket.  
  
"I say hell." Rica laughed.**  
  
----  
  
Sakaki was still lying in his hospital bed, nibbling at the stale Mac & Cheese and the even worse corn the hospital had provided when Doujima appeared at the doorway. His stitches had been re-sowed, though the wound was nearly healed. This, as the doctor reminded him, was a good thing since if it had been fresher he would have bleed to death.  
  
"How can you eat that garbage?" Doujima asked, making a face.  
  
"I'm not fickle." Sakaki explained.  
  
Doujima put a hand on her hip. "And I am?"  
  
Sakaki laughed.  
  
"That _isn't_ funny."  
  
"I think it is." Sakaki pointed out.  
  
"Flirting was a lot more fun last time, back on the beach." Doujima said with an air of an elderly person remembering the 'good ole days'.  
  
"I wasn't flirting."  
  
"Sure." Doujima smiled. "And Kosaka doesn't have a stash of hentai mangas under his desk."  
  
Sakaki sighed. "I mean it."  
  
"Really?" Doujima asked, sounded slightly put out.  
  
"Why?" Sakaki asked suddenly. "You sound like you _wanted_ me to flirt with you."  
  
"Well . . ." Doujima said solemnly. "You're the only person left from work for me to date."  
  
Sakaki blinked. "Well, ignoring what's _obviously_ odd about that statement, why would you want to date someone from work? It's against the rules."  
  
"Exactly." She smiled. "It'll piss Kosaka off. I mean, Amon's better looking than you, but he's also creepy." Sakaki laughed but she pouted. "He is too creepy! And Michael's really sexy but he's obviously got a thing for Robin. So that only leaves your or Hitler-Face himself, and so I've picked you."  
  
Sakaki let out a loud laugh. "You're crazy, do you know that?"  
  
Doujima then did something unexpected. She smiled, leaned in, and kissed Sakaki quickly on his forehead. Sakaki fell into a massive blushing fit, and Doujima gave a girly giggle and walked away.****  
  
----**  
  
Rica was enjoying himself as he slid the knife over Zaizen, watching the thin red lines of blood appear as it slit into his skin. He had stripped Zaizen of his jacket, leaving him in just his tie and his old white shirt, which was now red with blood.   
  
Zaizen wasn't making a sound. He was just sitting their, his face contorted in pain. Rica was very good at giving people pain. He was almost a specialist. A sick, psychotic specialist. But Rica was getting bored with his toy. He sighed and pressed the knife into Zaizen's face, between his eye and his nostril.  
  
"Well then, I think it's time I go and cut out those orbs of vision, eh?" Rica grinned. "Well, you can thank me when you wake up as one of the living dead."  
  
"I'll see you in hell." Zaizen spat.  
  
"No my dear man, you'll see me in Louisiana. That's where Calypso lives now."  
  
And Jackson David Rica, or Peter Pummel as some may call him, might really have killed Zaizen then. He might have, but he did not. Because it was at that moment that the ding of an elevator was heard and the door opened. Joseph Saunders turned around to look, but the only thing he saw was the Orbo Bullet as it flew into his left eye.  
  
Amon stepped off the elevator and quickly turned his gun towards Rica, but Rica was too fast. He jumped and moved down behind the chair in which Zaizen was tied in. Amon couldn't fire with his boss in the way, and Rica knew it. David pulled out the Colt Python he'd stolen from the downstairs guard when he knocked him out earlier and fired it at Amon.   
  
Before Amon could respond, however, Rica was gone. He had taken off at a run, pushing Zaizen and his chair clear over so that he fell to the ground with a clang. Rica was running as fast as his malice-filled feet would carry him up the stairs, towards the roof.  
  
"Robin, take care of him!" Amon called out as he chased after Rica.  
  
Robin watched the Dark Hunter chase after the Witch as she ran to Zaizen's side, dropping down to her knees. He was knocked out clean and cold, still wet with blood. Robin was ready to look for a first aid kit when she heard the sound of the cane.  
  
Spinning her head around and aiming her eyesight through her glasses like one may aim a gun; she lit the now one-eyed Joseph Saunders ablaze as he tried to smash her head in with the long oak cane. The evil Solomon Agent screamed and fell to the ground.  
  
Robin remember Michael's words, she knew that the only way to kill these creatures made from memories of one man and the bodies of others was to destroy the eyes. She grabbed the knife where Rica had dropped it. She closed her own eyes as she plunged the cold steel into Saunders' one, remaining dead eye, causing the last drops of his living blood to spill out.**  
  
----**  
  
Amon followed Rica's path by only seconds, ready to sink a bullet into the American Craft User at the first chance he would get. Of course, bullets, Orbo or Not, wouldn't do much to him, Amon knew it may slow Rica down enough to get a clean shot at his eyes.  
  
Finding his way to the last door before the roof Amon hesitated. It was . . . dangerous to go out on the roof. Rica could be waiting at the left or right, or maybe dead center, his gun drawn and ready to fire.  
  
And unlike Rica, Amon would die from the bullets.  
  
With a great kick Amon broke down the exit door and his eyes flashed from center to right to left and then behind him, above him, on the roof over the door that he had just came through. _  
  
Rica wasn't on the roof, meaning . . ._  
  
Amon didn't have time to turn as the shots pierced his legs. Rica had climbed off the roof and hung himself by his hands, so that the only trace he was even on the roof were five pale fingers keeping himself from falling off the edge of Raven's Flat. When the time was right the American had lifted himself up and fired three shots, two into Amon's right leg, and one into his left.  
  
Amon fell on the ground, and he felt himself loose grip on his Orbo gun. It fell clumsily away from him and he knew he couldn't reach it, not like this. He could hear footsteps and cruel laughter now.  
  
"Mr. Calypso always spoke about _you_." Rica was saying. Amon was on his stomach, he couldn't see the smug smile, but he knew it was there.  
  
Amon heard the cocking of a gun.  
  
The forth shot pierced Amon's neckline, where his neck and shoulder blades met. The shot was fatal, and it would kill Amon unless he found very fast medical attention.  
  
Rica was ready to fire a fifth shot into Amon's skull and kill the hunter once and for all when his entire arm caught on fire. Robin stood at the doorway, she still wore the old pink and green Kimono that Yuji had lent her and she looked out of place in it.  
  
The burning tongues of fire that kissed at Rica's arm suddenly vanished as a splash of water from the American's own craft hit them. He smiled and dropped his gun.  
  
"Naw, naw, puppy. I've grown tired of you."  
  
From out of no where a jet of water, almost like the end of a fire hydrant had been broken off, shot from no where at Robin. She impulsively made a shield of flames but the water broke right through it and hit her squarely on the chest.  
  
Robin was fast, though. She jumped up before the second blast of H2O came smashing into the concrete roof where she had just been sitting with such a force that it broke a hole clear in the ground.  
  
Robin launched three large flaming blast at the smug smiling enemy, but Rica's water craft turned them all into smoke before he got so much as a singed hair. Rica smirked as he launched another spurt of water at her, but she conjured up flames with all of her strength and was able to block out the water, though she was still no closer to harming Rica.  
  
"Naw puppy." He suddenly said with an even fouler smile than he had ever worn before. "We can screw around all day until one of us gets bored, but you know he's gonna be dead in a matter of minutes."  
  
Rica's fingers were pointing at Amon, who was unconscious and bleeding with a odd gurgling sound.  
  
"Now you can kill me." Rica smiled. "But he'll die too."  
  
Robin's emerald eyes were full of tears as she thought about this. She wanted to stop Rica so badly, but not at the cost of Amon's life.  
  
Rica didn't need a second answer. He laughed, ran towards the edge of the roof, and jumped off. Of course, the fall would only hurt him. The ancient evil magicks that played with him and made him as he was would heal him instantly. Unless by chance he landed on twin nails that poked out his eyes.  
  
Robin sighed and dropped down next to Amon. She needed to find a way to get him to a hospital quickly.  
  
Because if she didn't.  
  
Amon would die.**  
  
-------------------**


	8. Past Problems, Present Predicaments

**Witch Hunter Robin  
  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter VIII - Past Problems, Present Predicaments**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Calypso**©** and the Evil David Rica**©** are all my property. **  
   
-------------------**  
  
Haruto Sakaki had only just drifted off to sleep. It was nice to get some actual shut eye after being beaten, thrown from a boat, and had flirted at least twice with Yurika Doujima, which was enough to make any man tired and confused. Not that he had really found flirting with his blonde co-worker a bad thing, it was actually pretty fun. He wouldn't mind doing it once again, but unfortunately that was not to happen, at least not yet.   
  
The sleep was short lived, however, because he suddenly felt hands on his chest, shaking him violently trying to wake him up. His eyes opened to see the still-swollen face of Doujima. The first thought that crossed his mind was that she was back for more of her odd flirting style, but the second he saw the look of pain in her eyes he realized something was very wrong.  
  
"What happened?" He asked.  
  
"It's Amon." She choked. "He's here. In surgery."**  
  
----**  
  
It seamed like the entire STN-J was now at the hospital. Kosaka was in surgery to remove the bullet that had been shot into his shoulder by David Rica. Zaizen was being treated in the trauma center for extensive cutting wounds, which had also been inflicted by David Rica. Karasuma, Sakaki and Doujima had all been there already for the injuries they had gotten on the boat, by none other than David Rica.   
  
And now Amon and Robin were here. Amon, lying on a table as surgeons in white masks and rubber gloves attempted to save his life. His life blood was flowing from the wound on his throat like water from a faucet. Robin sat outside the room, looking in the tall glass window as the doctors raced against time.  
  
"Robin!"  
  
Robin spun around quickly, finding Doujima and Sakaki running towards her. Both of them were in the hospital gowns with their pants on underneath. Robin felt a kind of relived feeling inside her as she saw them. She had been worried about their lives for a while, but had been much too busy with her own life and Michael and Amon's as well to really give them her full attention.  
  
"What happened?" Sakaki asked as he looked into the window to see Amon lying on his stomach with doctors poking at his neckline.  
  
"Rica." Robin whispered.  
  
It was all that needed to be said. They were all thinking the same thing, really. David Rica had beat Amon. That made him the most dangerous Witch they'd ever fought. Robin was thinking these very things as she stood in the white ward when Michael's voice drifted to her ears, accompanied by the voice of someone she did not know.  
  
"You can fix my arm later damn it!"  
  
"But sir you can't --"  
  
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way!"   
  
Robin, as well as Doujima and Sakaki turned around to see Michael pushing his way past a nurse. His arm was still horribly crooked and beaten, but his face looked worse for the wear. Robin began to walk forward but Michael had arrived before she could. He slumped up against the wall, using it to support his balance.  
  
"Michael."  
  
Michael shook his head. "I know, I promised to stay but -- _damn_." He said, noticing who was inside the hospital room and what was happening.   
  
"Is he gonna die?" Doujima asked quietly.  
  
"The doctors don't know." Robin responded, even quieter.   
  
"Listen." Michael said, causing the three of them to look away from Amon and back to him. "I know Amon is important to each of us, but we still have a job to do. We _have_ to find Rica."  
  
"What's so urgent?" Doujima asked. It was clear she wanted to kill Rica as badly as any of them, but her health and Amon's was higher on her priority list.  
  
"He just bought an Airplane ticket on the phone." Michael explained. "He's heading back to America."**  
  
----**  
  
The world is a great place when all you need to buy an Airplane ticket with is a phone and a credit card number. David Rica was now on his way to the airport to pick up his ticket and get across the ocean.  
  
Of course, Doctor Calypso wouldn't be happy that Rica had failed to retrieve even one set of eyes, but perhaps the knowledge that Amon was dead would spare Rica from any punishment.  
  
After jumping from the roof of the STN-J's headquarters at Raven's Flat he landed on the ground with enough force to kill any human being, but not him. Calypso's power made his body heal in an instant. He jumped up from the smashing fall and quickly made his way to a nearby store, killed the owner, used his phone and credit card to buy the ticket, and then stole the man's car.  
  
They'd never catch him.**  
  
----**  
  
Amon was currently in surgery, his body was anyway. As his life drained slowly from its vessel his mind was miles away. Years away.  
  
Amon's mind was reliving that day five years ago._  
  
The building was ominous and dark, black and shadowy. The STN-J agents moved like swift dots in the darkness, guns drawn, ready to fire at the first glimpse of Charles Calypso.  
  
The team leader was running down the pitch-colored corridor with his gun aloft, his rookie partner Amon tagging along at his heels. Suddenly the corridor ended and they were out in the greater blackness of a larger room in the warehouse.  
  
"Hello Hunters."  
  
The STN leader spun around and aimed his gun but Calypso was too quick. Short, skinny with gray matted hair on his balding head and a matching gray goatee. He held an old cane in his hand, it was black and made of oak, except for the handle which was silver and made of steel. With a clicking noise Calypso slipped the black oak away to reveal a long sword blade.  
  
Calypso stabbed with the sword blade and slashed it against the leading agent's palm, causing his hand to drop the gun before he had the slightest chance to fire. Calypso then slashed with another cut and it scrapped across the leader's chest, causing him to fly back to the ground.  
  
Amon held his gun aimed, but he hesitated as Calypso looked into his eyes. The Witch jumped forward and stabbed with his sword, but Amon's finger pulled the trigger. The bullet flew into Calypso's cheek and up through his skull.  
  
Calypso had the power to take the eyes of witches and the bodies of humans and united them into one collective creature. Unfortunately the host vessel body would sometimes reject the eyes and memories, causing insanity and death. That was why he never used his powers on himself.  
  
And now he was dead because of it._  
  
It wouldn't be for another couple years until David Rica, who had been given one of Calypso's eyes by Calypso a year before his death would bring Calypso back.  
  
Past had caught up with Amon.  
  
And it may cost him his future.**  
  
----**  
  
The STN-J was in shambles, Zaizen and Kosaka were both out of commission, and even Amon had bitten the dust and was unable to lead the team. The doctors predicted that he had a 40% chance of survival, but that meant little to Michael right now, who had assumed the job of getting the STN-J into shape.  
  
Sakaki and Doujima were still wounded but otherwise than a few bruises they were good enough to go after Rica, so Michael made quick work of sending them to the airport that Rica's flight left from.  
  
Robin, who was better off than any of them, was sent with Karasuma (who had to use a wheelchair) to Rica's hotel room so that she could use her powers to learn anything they could that might help them.   
  
The trip to Rica's hotel room was done fine, but still it made Robin worry a bit. They had no headsets and it was impossible to contact the others right now, meaning if anyone ran into any trouble they'd be on their own.  
  
Robin was able to stop at Harry's Place on the way, and it appeared Master Yuji had been able to pick up some Orbo Guns from the Flat in the time since Rica left and Saunders died.  
  
Now that Karasuma was armed they made their way to the old hotel. It was difficult to get Karasuma's wheelchair up the stairs to the room (which was on the top floor) but they made good time. Robin's mind blazed a bit as they walked under the bright oak doorways and red carpeted halls until at last they arrived at the room.  
  
Once inside Robin went and sat down at the bed and Karasuma wheeled herself over to the bedside stand. Her blue eyes scanned around until they fell on something, a broken shard of silvery glass that lay under the bed.  
  
Her hand reached down and picked it up, and the moment her skin touched the watery shard, red with the cold dried blood from when Rica had smashed it out of the mirror, memories flooded her mind.  
  
Memories that made her want to scream._  
  
Peter Pummel, a young man with short brown hair and a matching mustache was dressed out in his blue police uniform, his Billie club in hand. It was Mardi Gras, and in __New Orleans__ it was the most festive day of the year.  
  
He was on duty that night. Between drunks, flashers, drug dealers and plain old party animals the night was far from just harmless fun. He himself was on the case tracking some Marijuana smoking teens he had spotted from his horse down on the street. He had to ride the horse during Mardi Gras since the cars wouldn't make it through the crowds.  
  
He was now in an old, abandoned loft above the street where cops, partying people, and dangerous men and women all trying to find great fun, even if it is illegal.   
  
"Hold it kids."  
  
He had entered the room and found three young women and two young men, all of them looking like they were in college, sitting on a stool. The narcotics were clearly in their hands. They were, what was it called he wondered, 'smoking a joint'?  
  
That's when the sixth person, a boy he had not seen, smashed a beer bottle down on his head from behind. Pummel fell out cold and the teens thought it would be funny to tie him up in an old chair with their beads. Then when they were done they slapped a Mardi Mask on his face and pushed him out the window.  
  
They though he'd land in the crowd of people beneath them and be fine, all in harmless fun. But he smashed into a parked car and when his face smashed the glass in it slit his throat.  
  
Peter Pummel had died, but his memories, his eyes, lived on after Calypso put them into David Rica's body._  
  
The memories of death and pain were burning inside Karasuma's mind.  
  
She knew now.**  
  
----**  
  
"You see him yet?"  
  
Doujima and Sakaki were under cover as an old married couple sitting on the bench outside Gate C7. The Airlines had told Michael that this was the only gate that had a flight to Louisiana was this one.  
  
They both wore gray wigs; Doujima was in a horrible yellow dress, while Sakaki wore an ugly green suit. They had Orbo Guns tucked away ready to be drawn and fired at the slightest sight of Rica.  
  
"Nope." Sakaki said with a sigh.  
  
"This is boring." The blonde pouted.  
  
"You won't be saying that when we find Rica." Sakaki smirked. He knew Doujima had a personal feud with the smug smiling American and she would follow him to the ends of the earth if it meant a chance to get him once and for all.  
  
"True." She responded honestly. "He just ticks me off."  
  
The Airport security knew the STN agents were here, but why they hadn't been told. So at the security tunnel when David Rica showed up and flashed them a STN-J ID card, they let him through the security tunnel with his gun still in his pocket.  
  
"Thank you gentlemen." He said politely. "I'll just take a look for my partners."  
  
Rica walked over to Gate C7, looking at the faces of so many people. Mothers with their children, Brothers with their Sisters, Rich old men who were flying overseas, tourist going home. So many of them. He could use them as hostages if he had too, but he didn't want to make a scene.  
  
He made his way quickly and quietly over behind the bench where the two of them sat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun, pressing it against Doujima's back. She gasped and turned around, as did Sakaki, but Rica cocked the gun.  
  
"You try anything lil' puppy and you'll die faster than a toad in a snake farm."  
  
Neither of them spoke or moved, but the look on their faces was far from happy.  
  
"Naw if you try to stop me from boarding that plane I'm gonna open fire, but not on you, on all these nice civilians, you got that? Maybe I'll shoot some babies in mommy's arms."  
  
"You sick son of a bitch." Doujima spat.  
  
"I know." Rica spoke fondly. "I love you puppies too. Now be good, I'll come back and kill you some day."  
  
Rica then stood and boarded the plane; the two STN agents were unable to stop him without risking the lives of everyone around him. Once Rica was out of sight Doujima stood up and walked towards the plane on-ramp.  
  
"Doujima, what do you think you're doing?" Sakaki asked, following her.  
  
"We're going to get on that plane." Doujima explained. "And we're going to America with Rica."  
  
Sakaki shook his head. It was probably a huge mistake, but he was all game.  
  
So the two STN-J agents boarded the plane, determined to follow David Rica at any cost.  
  
And that was exactly what Rica had been planning on.**  
  
-------------------------**


	9. Bathrooms, Kisses and Memories

**Witch Hunter Robin  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter IX – Bathrooms, Kisses, and Memories**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, **Calypso©** and the Evil **David Rica©** are all my property. **  
**** ----------------******

"Lovely plan, probably the best I've ever heard." Sakaki muttered sarcastically.  
  
"And what is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"It means we're trapped in an airplanes bathroom with no means of stopping Rica."  
  
"Don't you enjoy being stuck with me in a small space?"

"Don't change the subject Doujima."

"You _know_ you're enjoying having my chest thrust into your face."

"Doujima!"

"You're cute when you get mad, you know that?"  
  
"Can we flirt after we stop the psycho?"

"Only if you'll admit you like me."  
  
"Doujima!"  
  
"Call me Yurika, no wait, just Yuri, sound more girlfriend-ish."

Sakaki said nothing, he only sighed.   
  
They had been staked out at an Airport. There were only two flights tonight heading from Tokyo, Japan to America, and as luck would have it both of them were heading to Louisiana, and David Rica wanted to head to New Orleans, so it worked perfectly for him.

They had, of course, found Rica at the Airport terminal, but as Rica had reminded them there, a shoot out in a busy airport would claim many civilian lives. So they had followed him onto the plane, and now they were hiding in a bathroom, on an airplane, which was currently on its way off their small island country and away to America.

Of course the problem was you _can't_ use guns on Airplanes, because even one missed shot into the haul and the entire plane would go down into the ocean. Cabin pressure would drop and everyone would die. They hadn't thought of this when they followed Rica, but now, looking back, they wished they had.

Still, what else could be done but stand hide here in the bathroom with Doujima until they though of something?

**----**

"Baka!"

Michael slammed his left fist down on the table. He hated using his left fist, but what else could he do?   
  
Raven's Flat was empty now, the body of Joseph Saunders had been taken away by people from the factory, and a factory guard was now surrounding the building, though Michael Lee knew they didn't need it.

Rica was on his way overseas right now.

And now Michael had just learned that Doujima and Sakaki had followed him.

Three computers were set up along each other, and in his swivel chair Michael was using his one usable hand to operate all three of them. On one computer was a Web cam from John Hopkins hospital in Maryland, the finest medical establishment on the planet.

John Hopkins was using their web cams to watch a dangerous surgery preformed. Something they always did when there were surgeries as rare and dangerous as this one.

Amon's Surgery.On the second computer screen was an Instant Message between himself and someone using an American computer. The conversation was turning ugly. The person on the other end was the computer specialist for the STN-America, the American branch of Solomon's Witch Hunting organization. He had tried to convince her that David Rica was a traitor for Solomon and must be hunted when he reached America, but it took a management order to issue a hunt, and both Zaizen and Kosaka were still in surgery.

Of course his friend from the STN-A was worried about this news of Rica, since she was located in a small STN-A branch in New Orleans, and David Rica was her personal boss.

The third computer was currently booking a single airline ticket to New Orleans from the last plane to Louisianan tonight. It wasn't for Michael though.

"Michael."  
  
His heart skipped a beat. Looking up from where he sat he saw Robin at the doorway. Her young face, so soft and silky smooth was tired today. Dark rings hugged her face beneath her eyes, and tears still stained her face. Between Michael's vanishing act after he was shot, and Amon's life hanging by a thread, the youngest hunter was slowly breaking down.

Before he knew it she had walked over around his chair and was hugging him from behind, lying her petite chin down on his left shoulder and peering down at the web cam which displayed Amon's surgery. He was still alive, but for how long?

Robin closed her eyes and tried to block the images of doctors in white aprons and teal gloves cutting open Amon's neck, but it was no good. When she shut them she saw Rica shooting him again. It was just as bad, if not worse.

Instead she turned her thoughts away from Amon, and to Michael. Without really knowing what she was doing her lips found his neck and planted small kisses on it. Michael smiled but said nothing, shutting his own eyes.

"Robin, you have to follow Miss. Doujima and Sakaki."

"I know."  
  
She didn't even make an attempt to move away, or to stop kissing him softly.

"This isn't like you."  
  
"I know."

Robin closed her eyes. Her life had been turned upside down and shaken all around since the first bout with Kita Nobunaga a month ago. Since that first time Michael kissed her forehead. And it had only become more and more different as time went on. This was the second time she had broken down and just allowed the horrors of her life to slip away as she embraced Michael Lee.

"I love you." The hacker's voice spoke softly.  
  
"I know."

**----**

The house was the stereotype of a New Orleans native during the civil war. Colonel Sanders himself could have lived there, raising his chickens and frying them for dinner all around. Of course the Colonel was from Kentucky, (or at least his fast food chain was) but that didn't matter to most who saw it.

It was huge and made from oak, sitting right smack down in the Bayou. The smell of Cajun cooking was an overpowering odor in the air at the home of Charles Calypso.

On the outside the gardens were well kept, and the paint was always fresh and white. But on the inside the house was dark, lights were non-existent. Only old candles illuminating the blackness. The main hallway had two doors to either side, the one of the left led to the ballroom, and the one of the right led to a sitting lounge that contained a chair, grandfather clock and an old couch like the kind psychiatrist use.

Cobwebs and spiders were a common site downstairs, but upstairs there was no light. Up the dark, poorly painted staircase. The stairs were at the end of the main hallway from in front of the front door. Only one bedroom was in use upstairs. The one on the far end of the hallway upstairs. That was Calypso's bedroom.  
  
A laptop was set up, with a direct feed to John Hopkins. Calypso was a doctor in his day, before Solomon targeted him for being a Witch. He liked watching John Hopkins.

The old man who was Charles Calypso had already been told by David Rica that Amon was dead. Amon, the man who killed Calypso five years ago.And yet John Hopkins had a direct web cam link to a Tokyo hospital where Amon lay, now with a 69% chance of survival.

That did not set well with Calypso.

**----**

Rica sat in first class, he never flew coach. Coach was for poor people, and normal people. Not for undead witch hunters.

He sighed and grabbed the telephone in front of him. Calls from an airplane were expensive, that was true, but he really didn't give a damn. He sighed as he pressed the small white and black buttons on the manila colored phone. It rung three times before a voice answered with a "Hallo?"

It wasn't the cold, drawing voice of Charles Calypso. It was much warmer, much friendlier voice. Full of youth. Not the kind of person you'd expect Rica to call.

"I have a job for you Gold."  
  
As Rica spoke the voice changed. No longer warm and friendly, but now speaking with annoyance, obedience and a hint of fear. "Yes sir?"  
  
"There are two Witches on the plane with me. A blonde woman and a dumb punk with her, I want them dead once my plane lands. I'll lure them to the usual spot."

The voice spoke again. "Yes Sir Mr. Rica. It'll be taken care of."

"Don't screw up Silver."  
  
"Gold, sir."  
  
"Whatever." Rica muttered.

"Maybe I'll kill people for you when you can remember my name you mother fu-"  
  
"I haven't hung up yet."

"Sorry sir."

**----**

Robin was now on an airplane as well.

It was really a daze, her life, now. She knew the headset wouldn't stay in range to talk to Michael once she got in the air, and she knew that right now as she sat waiting for take off was the last chance she'd have to talk to the young hacker who had stolen her heart, but still she said nothing.  
  
She only sat, leaning her reddish-blonde haired head down on a window as she listened to the faint buzz as static hummed into the headpiece. She wanted to speak to Michael but she couldn't think of the words to say. She just wanted this to end. She wanted David Rica to be stopped. She wanted to wake up and have all of this had been some nightmare.

No.

That wasn't true.

David Rica was pure evil. He had shot, kicked, beaten, nearly drowned, and tried to killed everyone in Japan who Robin respected, cared for, or treated as a friend.

And yet he had helped bring her together with Michael.

For that she could not wish away all of the pain. Because with that pain came those few, fleeting moments when she and Michael had been one. Those few moments when she and Michael had been madly in love.  
  
Sitting at Harry's and staring at each other.

Kisses on the neck at Raven's Flat.

Those few moments of love were enough to erase days of hate and pain. Those precious moments of two young lovers.

Robin just hoped Amon wouldn't have to pay his life for those few moments of hers and Michael's.

**----**

Minutes passed by.

Still Doujima was trapped in a bathroom, smushed against Sakaki.

Hours passed after that.

At first flirting had been fun, and the bathroom was clean so she didn't have any smells to deal with, but after two hours she was cramping up, her arm was falling asleep, and she was getting a back ache. Still, she was okay. She could sing.

It was now the middle of the night, and the plane was still hours from America.

Doujima was slowly going insane. Sakaki had fallen asleep and now had his head resting against her shoulder, snoring quietly in her ear. She sighed. She had hummed every song she could think off, and was becoming more and more bored. Her entire body was numb, either from the tingling sleeping feeling or from pain. She was no longer having fun.

One thing kept her going though.

Her hatred of David Rica.

Even during her flirting and her jokes and all of that, she hated him. Her face was still swollen and welted from where he had beaten her, and she still carried a invisible scar of hate from that day at the hospital.The idea of watching Rica die was keeping her going.

**----**

Karasuma was alone now. She wasn't in bed, though it was late. Instead she just sat in her wheelchair outside the glass window of Amon's operating room. Her dark eyes peering inside as the hunter she had known for many years was being operated on, his life in the balance.

Karasuma had known Amon longer than anyone else on the STN-J, and she knew him better than they did. She also felt the worst watching him lay there like that, life draining from him as doctors struggled to bring it back.

Karasuma's eyes were filled with silent tears. She couldn't remember a time at the STN without Amon.

And she didn't want to ever see one.

**----**

(**BIG WARNING**: The following is a flashback that depicts Sakaki's father abusing him and his mother. You may want to skip this, as is does not matter much to _F&R_ but it **_does_** have something to do with the sequel.)

_"__Kichiro please!"_

_The apartment was small and dark. A desk and a chair cluttered a corner, with a fold out sofa in the middle of the room. A small TV sat in front of it. Socks, papers, and other cluttered things lined the room. Old potato chip bags and strange smells. It looked like a bachelor pad._

_  
But it wasn't._

_  
It was the home of Kichiro Wantanabee, and his girlfriend. Sora Sakaki._

_  
He was tall and lean, with a perfect face and a well sculpted body. He had once been the star athlete, the man all the women dreamed about. _

_Sora Sakaki got that man. She was young and beautiful, with a fiery red mantle of hair that reached down to her shoulders and made her all the more gorgeous. At least she had been. Now her face was covered in bruises and her once majestic hair was now dirty and unkempt.  
  
"Shut up woman."_

_His fist smacked her hard, sending her back onto the ground. Blood ran from out of her nose. She knew he would hit her again. She was used to it. She just wished he wouldn't do it in front of Haruto. He was so young._

_"Daddy, you made mommy bleed."  
  
Haruto Sakaki was three years old as he watched his father beat his mother. He didn't understand why he did it. He didn't know what it was. But he did know that whenever the red blood came from his body he was in pain. The boy wondered why his daddy would make his mommy bleed, since she would probably be in pain too._

_Kichiro turned on his three year old son._

_"Fucking brat."  
  
Haruto saw his father's fist as it flew slowly towards him . . ._

"Haruto."

_He felt the pain as it collided with his young jaw._

"Haruto!"

_He could felt himself start to cry as his own blood began to flow._

"HARUTO!"  
  
(**End of the Warning**)

Sakaki's eyes snapped opened as the bathroom and Doujima came back into his blurry view. He could see the blonde before him wore a look of mingled worry and confusion, and he then realized that he was covered in cold sweat and he must have screamed in his sleep.

He stared down at Doujima and he hoped that the tears that were building in his eyes wouldn't fall. He had never cried in front of another STN-J agent before, unless you count the time the one-eyed Witch had possessed his mind and forced his worry to increase.

_I had been thinking about dad during that too._ Sakaki reminded himself.

Her eyes asked all the questions she could have ever asked. They asked him what that was about.

Sakaki did not answer.

"Haruto." She said softly, no longer in her flirty voice, or her angry one, or her silly one. Now using a voice that reminded him oddly of the way Robin had spoken his name a month ago after she had tried to cheer him up after he shot her.

"I don't want to talk about it Doujima."  
  
She sighed. "Okay. But –"  
  
"No."  
  
"Not that." She fumbled to move. "We're landing. We're in America."

**-------------**


	10. Cajun Cookin', Cajun Killin'

**Witch Hunter Robin  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter X – Cajun Cookin', Cajun Killin'**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, The STN-A©, Calypso© and the Evil David Rica**©** are all my property.

**----------------**

Doujima's entire body was numb.

The airline ride had seamed short, but in reality it had been an overnight flight. Hours and hours had passed. She knew that at some point she had fallen asleep, as Sakaki had, but she didn't get anything close to a "good nights sleep". Of course her entire body was sore and tingling and she was shoved together with Sakaki in a tiny airplane bathroom, so it was no surprise.The real surprise was that none of the plane's passengers had ever had the need to use the bathroom.

Squeezing out painfully Doujima flexed her arms and rotated her shoulders in an attempt to loosen the many painful knots that had tied themselves in her muscles over the long period of painful sleep. Her neck gave a loud pop as she twisted it and she bit her bottom lip.

Sakaki was no better off; that she could tell. He had spent the last 30 hours squashed between a blue plastic toilet and her, and she knew he couldn't have very much enjoyed that. Of course now wasn't the time to complain about pain, or sleeping body parts, or annoyances with one another, or the fact she had woken Sakaki up from a dream that had caused him to sweat, scream and cry.   
  
Those things could wait.

Doujima's blue eyes shot around the room, watching people travel off the airplane. An old man in a moldy brown suit carrying an ugly briefcase that looked like rain-stained leather. A young mother with a tired face who had obviously spent the night keeping her child from crying, and was now attempting to do the same as they exited the aircraft. A pair of youthful lovers who were giggling and kissing as they collected their belonging from their seats and overhead bin. A messy slob in a too-small shirt who was pushing his way past other people in a hurry.

But no Rica.

No smug smile, no handsome face beneath dark glasses, no navy STN jacket, no Jackson David Rica in view whatsoever.   
  
"He must have gotten off the plane already." Doujima said quietly.

"Damn." Sakaki cursed behind her. "We have to find him. C'mon."  
  
The two STN-J agents had no clue that they had no official Witch Hunting powers in this country, nor did they know of the dangerous web of traps and lies that David Rica had set up for them, what they did know, however, was that they were going to punish him all of the horrors he had bestowed upon the STN-J.

The two young STN agents, after checking to make sure their Orbo guns were still in place, hurried off the plane in search of Rica.

And behind them, hiding down low ducking behind a row of seats, the smug smiling New Orleans native laughed.

**----**

Robin's eyes were closed.

Memories were floating in the ocean that was Robin Sena's psyche; some were brimming near the surface while others sunk near the bottom. The ones sinking were the ones that she didn't want to remember. The ones about Amon's surgery, the sight of seeing the Great Amon, the most powerful Witch Hunter she'd ever met lying in a bed with blood flowing from the back of his neck as doctors tried their best to save his life.

The memory of the look in Michael's eyes. The look of ache that she saw bubble into her lover's eyes when he thought about all the horrors David Rica had bestowed on the STN-J, when he thought about his cousin he found only to lose again, or when he thought about how sad she herself was. Robin didn't want to leave Raven's Flat.

She really had no recollection of when she finally stopped kissing Michael, when her senses finally came back to her and she realized she had a job to do. She had no recollection of how she got to the airport or how long she had waited at the terminal for her flight. She didn't even remember getting on the airplane.  
  
All she knew was that now she had been on the airliner for hours. By now Doujima and Sakaki's plane would have landed, and she was still at least four hours away from New Orleans International Airport.

She had not slept, though the plane ride was overnight and she had already been very tired as it was, but still she could not sleep at a time like this. Even with the dark rings of lethargy clinging to her young face just below her eyes, she did not attempt to nap. Memories of Michael kept her awake.

Memories.

Memories were the greatest thing the human race ever had. They were the one thing no one can ever take from you.

And yet some Memories are so much like Nightmares that the difference is hard to find.

**----**

_Hah, this is ironic. This is truly a paradox worthy to be called irony. _

Michael sat, not at his own desk, but in the tall, full back, leather chair of Zaizen. He was sitting; his feet up leaning on the window, staring out turned away from the desk and down at the great transom that gave view.

He was sitting in the chair that he had revered for years. This was the chair that Zaizen had sat every day. This was the chair that held the man who controlled Michael's life. With one request of the manager of the STN-J, Michael would be dead. And now that man, Zaizen, was in a hospital having his head sewn shut after Rica and Saunders had broken it, and Michael was alone now.

Michael was alone. He was for the first time in his life able to come and go as he pleased. He could go outside if he felt like it. He could go outside and he could stare up at the sunny blue sky and he could lie out in the green grass and do all of the natural things he never bothered to do before the STN-J.

And yet, he could not.

He had the power to walk out the door right now and never come back. Or maybe just go for a stroll in the park. To throw his arms up in the arm and allow rain to fall on him, just like that American prison movie. He could enjoy his life outdoors for the first time in . . . years was it? How long had he really been working for the STN-J?

And yet, he could not.

He could not because Robin could call him, or the hospital, or Master Yuji Kobari of Harry's place, or Zaizen could return, or Rica could relay a message to STN, or Solomon could send word, or the Factory –

It was all the same.

He was a trapped soul.

And for the first time he had a chance to escape.  
  
And yet, he could not.

**----**

Karasuma was still in her wheelchair, still wearing the ugly hospital gown, and still peering intently at Amon's form as the doctors worked to save him. The bullet had been removed hours ago, but still the surgery went on. How long had they been operating? She didn't remember.

Doctors had changed, hours had passed. Days? Had it been days? Maybe one. Almost two. Or was it longer? Maybe she had sat here watching the surgery for years and years. No. It couldn't be that long. Could it?

Karasuma watched intently at the surgery. Doctors changed every few hours, and every now and then the chances of survival went up and down. They must be setting some Guinness record for longest surgery.

"Karasuma."  
  
Karasuma turned her tired face over her shoulder to where Touko had appeared. Karasuma's tired blue eyes peered into Touko's equally exhausted, equally cerulean-shaded orbs of sight. Touko moved closer to the woman in the wheelchair, and closer to the glass window, but she stopped. She did not want to see Amon so weak. She did not want to see Amon so close to death.

"Miss. Touko."

Touko came no closer, and she spoke no more. She just stood there, close enough to the window to see the white robed, teal gloved doctors, but not quite close enough to see Amon's pale form as red blood and many medicines fought for his survival.

Touko had not even known Amon was here. She got a call telling her that he father, Zaizen, had been wounded. She had come to see him when she learned of Amon.

Amon.

Touko closed her eyes.   
  
Amon couldn't die like this.

**----**

Doujima and Sakaki made quick time from the airplane into the terminal, but it was no use. Rica had eluded them. How do you find a man in the biggest airport in Louisiana? How do you find one person in an ocean of so many more?  
  
Eyes flashed around but they did not find David Rica. The figures of so many more people, young and old, short and tall, so many differences between them.

_But none of them are evil undead corpses who enjoy killing people._

Doujima reminded herself. At least she _hoped_ Rica was the only person here like that.

If Rica was even here anymore.

Doujima's eyes scanned everyone she saw quickly, but she could not see the smug smile that she had come to know and hate so well. With a glance to Sakaki she saw that he was having no better luck.

"Lookin' for someone, puppies?"

Both STN-J operatives spun around quicker than they had in their entire lives. There he was. Standing behind them. Handsome face behind dark glasses, smug smile in place below his thin nose, trimmed black hair gleaming in the neon lights of the Airport Food Cart, David Rica stood with a leer.

Sakaki went for his gun almost automatically but Rica's lips were faster, uttering only one single word: "Civilian."

Sakaki stopped and cussed. There were many innocent lives all around them, walking to their right, left and some even between the two STN agents and the undead Solomon reviewer.

"Follow me, lil' ones." The America said softly and he abruptly walked right between Doujima and Sakaki and away from them. They both followed him, each had a hand in their coat, each were holding their gun handles softly, ready for a clean shot at the killer's eyes.

Though they followed Rica closely, somehow he managed to reach the Airport's exit before them, and he found his way out onto the street first. When they finally found him, he was getting inside one of the yellow cabs parked at the curb. They quickly ran, now drawing their guns, but his cab was already speeding away down the road. The driver used to work in New York.

The two STN agents cursed and ran to the second yellow cab.

"Follow that other cab!" Sakaki shouted, much like a line from a bad action movie, as the two hopped into the backseat of the cab.  
  
"Yessir." Said the driver in a warm and friendly voice. He was a young kid, not much older than his passengers, with dark brown hair that looked black in this lighting, and eyes an odd color somewhere between blue and green.

The cab sped off, flying down the road following Rica's ride.  
  
Doujima wished she had been here under better circumstances. The lights and sounds and smells (the overwhelmingly mouth-watering, scrumptious smell of Cajun cooking was in the air, along with a aroma that smelled like college parties and poker games) and if they weren't chasing a psycho she hated so badly she would have been begging to stop the car and go to a casino. (Though at seventeen she was still underage to go to one).

The cab followed Rica's for many streets, and when Rica's cab turned down an old dirt road towards a construction site, their own cab did the same. They began to slow down and if Amon had been in the car he would have noticed what was happening in an instant.

Rica car suddenly stopped in the middle of the construction site, and the cab that they had followed him in slowed to a stop not far behind.

Neither Sakaki nor Doujima had any American money, and the few Japanese bills they had could hardly cover the cab bill, so instead they jump went for the door handles. The driver didn't seam to be bothered by this, though. He only smiled.

Again, had Amon been there he would have become suspicious, but he was still in surgery [_long surgery, eh readers_?].   
  
Sakaki and Doujima stepped out of the cab, Orbo guns now drawn and held out in front of them. They aimed them at the other cab before them, but Rica made no move to exit his vehicle. Again, Amon would have known what was going on.

It was Sakaki who noticed it. His eyes flashed around him at the surrounding, at the dark, dirt ground beneath them, the covered fence they had driven by when they entered, and the black looming skeletal-like framework for a building that was not yet built.

He saw the shadow on the steel rafters of the building. He saw the sniper just before the trigger was pull. With a shout he jumped down, behind the cab, and just in time for at that very moment the sniper he had spotted fired and the bullet went sailing where he had just stood and into the back window of the cab.Doujima let out a squeak, but she too leapt back. A second shot missed her as she jumped and it collided with the dirt behind her.

The cab door was opening, but not Rica's cab; it was the one they had driven. The young brown-haired cab driver was standing up, pulling a gun from under his jean vest.

"Run!"  
  
Sakaki didn't really need to say it. He and Doujima both ran in opposite directions and as they did the snipers planted on the skeletal building fired more shots. The cab driver ran after Sakaki, firing a shot, but it missed him.

Sakaki held his Orbo gun over his shoulder and fired, but it missed his target and the rookie hunter kept running. Where too, he had no clue.

Just away from the bullets.

**----**

Doujima didn't see where she was running too; she just saw that she was running. The gunfire behind her was still going on and part of her was worrying about Sakaki, but she didn't have the time to worry about him now, because now she had to keep herself alive if she was going to help him.

She was mutely aware of someone chasing her. It wasn't the cab driver; it was someone else who had run from the shadows, and was carrying a gun, but she couldn't stick around long enough to see more of the shadowy pursuer.

Who were they? These people with guns in the shadows. Obviously it had all been a trap of David Rica, but how did he get these servants? Who were they? Hired assassins? Other zombies of Calypso?

_Solomon._

The thought struck the blonde like a ton of bricks. Did Solomon know Rica was a traitor? Could these people be Solomon who was now trying to kill her? Were these people Witch Hunters, just like her?

_Well, not just like me, I'm not this good with a gun._

Suddenly Doujima felt a sharp pain pierce her leg and she fell down into the dirt on the ground. She could now hear footsteps running and now she could see the shadow of someone standing above her. For the middle of the daytime, it was dark.  
  
_Yeah, why is it so dark?_

She heard a gun cocking and she realized that she was about to be killed. It was still pitch black around her, as if the sun was being blotted out by some invisible hand covering the glowing bronze rays of magnificent star.

Doujima wouldn't die like a coward, though. She grabbed her Orbo gun tight in her hand and rolled over onto her back, firing a shot up at the person standing above her. She missed completely, and the bullet sailed harmlessly around the side of her attacker, who turned out to be a young woman with reddish-brown hair.

The woman, who had been close to killing Doujima, stopped and gasp loudly at the Orbo gun down in the blonde's hand. Her eyes sailed over Doujima's jacket, and it was then Doujima noticed the woman's own jacket.   
  
It was a navy trench coat, just like the black one she was wearing.

It was then that Doujima realized who these people were.

**----**

Sakaki had run a long distance in a short time, all the while as the cab driver attempted to shoot and kill him from behind. He had run away from the skeletal building in the construction site and across the street to where there was an empty lot. He was just really running now, running and waiting.

The attacker behind, the young cabbie, shot once again, and Sakaki struggled to move to his right as he ran so that the bullet would not pierce his hide and end his life at that very moment. It was then Sakaki heard the most wonderful sound in the world behind him.

The sound of a gun out of ammo.

The cabbie had tried to fire once more, and the gun clicked harmlessly. Sakaki stopped running away, spun around, and ran towards the young cab driver. The cab driver didn't even attempt to reload his gun; instead he just threw it aside and ran to meet Sakaki halfway.

The two young men threw punches and they caught one another in their own respected faces, causing them both to fall backwards with a thud. Sakaki could feel the red dripping blood flow from out of his nose, and he watched the young cabbie he had slugged, who now had a mark around his eye that would soon become a large black bruise.

The two stood up again and their punches flew. Sakaki caught the cabbie under his chin, making him fall onto the ground, but as he did the cabbie kicked his leg out and smashed it into Sakaki's stomach, which was still sore from the stabbing last month and the double stitching he'd received lately.

"Sakaki, stop!"  
  
"Hold it Gold!"

The two youth, who were now both lying on their backs bleeding and beaten, looked up as the reddish-brown haired woman and Doujima ran towards them.

"They're the STN-J!" The unknown woman called to the cab driver, who didn't seam to realize what that meant at first, but a moment later his face broke into understanding, and then confusion once more.

Doujima dropped down next to Sakaki's broken form and whispered to him. She told them who these people were. They were the American Witch Hunters.

Back at the construction site, David Rica was furious. He had seen one of his own hunters as she realized who Doujima was, refused to kill her, and then sped off with the annoying Japanese girl at her heels to stop Sakaki's death from happening.

_Oh well_. Rica thought with a sigh. _I'll just kill all the puppies myself_.

**----------------**


	11. Born on the Bayou

**Witch Hunter Robin  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter XI – Born on the Bayou**

**  
 Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, the STN-A©, Calypso© and David Rica© are all my property.

** ----------------******

_The STN-J?_

So far since Haruto Sakaki and Yurika Doujima had arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, they had found themselves with painful cramps from a over-night ordeal in a airplanes bathroom, in a high speed cab chase, and then shot at by unknown assailants, but now Sakaki was lying on the ground, a drip of red blood sinking down from his damaged nose, and sharp pains cutting into his stomach.

The unknown cab driver, who had shot at him and now kicked him, was pulling himself up to his feet, a great black eye forming where Sakaki had punched him. He was staring at the reddish-brown haired girl who had appeared along with Doujima, now he was speaking, Sakaki didn't hear the words but a strange look crossed the cabby's face.

"Doujima, what's going on?" Sakaki asked, looking over at her. She flashed him a sly smile and then began to dig around her pockets; with a sigh she shook her head.

"Sorry, no napkins. Better hold your head back."  
  
Sakaki scowled. "Doujima!"  
  
She laughed. "Now, now, what did we discuss in the bathroom?"

Sakaki wasn't amused. "Doujima, what is going on?"  
  
"I'm not talking to you until you call me by my pet name."  
  
"This isn't time for your stupid flirting dammit!"

Sakaki knew at once he had gone too far. Doujima said nothing but her eyes filled with a mixture of flames and tears, and she looked deadly. Sakaki knew that there would be hell to pay later, but he was in far too bad a mood to care in the least bit.

"Hey."  
  
Sakaki turned his head around to where the ginger haired woman and the cab driver now stood. They didn't look dangerous anymore, on the contrary, they looked a lot friendlier than Doujima did right now.

"Err… sorry about that mate." He said awkwardly. "Though you were a pair of witches Mr. Rica told us to hunt."

Sakaki's blood began to boil the second Rica's name slipped off the young man's tongue. He was already looking at being suspended by Kosaka when they got back to Japan, Doujima looked murderous because of him, and the mention of the smug smiling American was enough to send him over the deep end.   
  
Before Sakaki could speak the ginger haired woman wrinkled up her nose and suddenly the strange darkness that had appeared all around them was gone, and it was back to being a sunny blue sky in the late morning. Sakaki recognized it as a craft now, and he knew these people were the American version of his own organization.

_But why are they helping Rica?_

It was then the thought struck Sakaki that they had no clue about David Rica being the murdering bastard he really was. His face contorted into a look of mixed understanding and he stood up.

"Where's Rica?" He asked at once, his hands flailing out and grabbing the cab driver by his shirt. He seamed surprised by this."Wait, you are after Rica? But then –"  
  
"I'm right hyah, Puppy."

Sakaki didn't release his hold on the cab driver as he looked over to his left. David Rica stood, wearing his smug smile, a nine millimeter sidearm in his hand and a malice coming from his voice that chilled to the very marrow of the bone.

"Mr. Rica, what's going on?" A voice asked. A second man had appeared, much broader and bulkier than the cab driver. He had dark skin and wavy black hair and slung over his shoulder was a sniper rifle; obviously he had been on of the unseen snipers across the street.

"Oh just a little problem from my trip to Japan." Rica said his smirk widening. "That and I am an undead zombie witch who's had a really bad day."

The man with wavy black hair didn't have time to find out if this was supposed to be some kind of joke or not before Rica turned around and fired three shots into his chest. The cab driver and the ginger haired woman both screamed and Sakaki realized it was now or never.

He had lost his Orbo gun in the struggle but his left hand shot out towards the ginger haired woman's waste band, where her own gun was tucked into her jeans. He grabbed the gun, spun, and fired at Rica before anyone could react.

The shots flew into Rica's chest and while his face contorted into a sneer of pain he didn't slow down in the least as he brought his own gun up aiming it at the four people before him.   
  
"Eyes!"   
  
He heard Doujima scream out and Sakaki remembered what Michael had told them about Calypso and about Rica. He aimed the gun but before he could fire a jet of water came from out of nowhere and smashed into Sakaki's hand, causing him to drop the gun into the dirt.

"Bye puppy." Rica laughed as he squeezed his trigger, his gun aimed directly at Sakaki's chest.

**----**

"Miss. Karasuma?"

Karasuma's eyes shot open as her name was called. Her dark red hair was knotted and tangled against her sweaty forehead. She had dozed off not long ago, still sitting in her wheelchair outside the operating room where Amon's life was hanging in the balance. Her eyes shot to the man who stood not far from her, and then at once to the glass that separated her from the room where Amon lay.

And then she gasped.

The doctors had all gone, the web cam link to the American hospital, John Hopkins, was turned off. And lying on the operating table was a body, covered by a tall cloth. Only the man's feet stuck out from beneath the long cloak.  
  
The man under the cloth was dead.

Amon was dead.

"Karasuma?"

Miho Karasuma's eyes, which had immediately filled with rare tears upon seeing the body under the cloth and closed, shot open and darted to her left. She had thought she heard Amon's voice, but it was only the doctor. No, upon closer inspection the man standing beside her wasn't a doctor. He was a tall, brown haired man in a white coat. She didn't know him.

"Are you Miho Karasuma? Touko said she was in a wheelchair…"

Karasuma was taken aback. Touko had said? It then occurred to her that Touko had been here with her when Amon was still in surgery. Was this some message from Touko about Amon's death? Her eyes wandered back to the glass separating her from Amon's dead body.

They were moving the body now. She could see the man's face.

It wasn't Amon.

"Okay, sorry I bothered you."  
  
The man had begun to walk away.

"Wait! Yes, I'm Miho Karasuma."

The man gave an annoyed sighed and turned back around. "Why didn't you say so?"

Karasuma ignored him. "Where did they take Amon?"  
  
The man gave a small sigh. "They moved him over to the intensive care ward. He was awake for a little while, but he went back under. Touko was smart enough to call me and tell me what happened, and then she wanted me to come see if you were still asleep and wake you up. She's down the hall visiting her father."

Karasuma may have found this information mildly interesting if the circumstances were different. But there was something else she wanted to know. Many things.  
  
"Hold on." Karasuma snapped angrily. "What happened to Amon? And who the hell are you?"  
  
The man laughed. "I'm Nagira, and Amon was taken out of surgery after they stabilized his condition. You were asleep. Touko tried to wake you up but you just kept sleeping."

Karasuma was thoroughly confused on most of what Nagira said, and she wished she could just go _see_ Amon now and find out from him what was going on, but she knew she couldn't.

Still it didn't matter.

Amon was alive.

**----**

The bullet flew from Rica's gun, and it would have killed Sakaki, but a moment before it would have struck him and killed him, everything went dark again. His first thought was that he had been killed, but suddenly he felt arms pulling him away and he realized it was that ginger haired woman and her craft once again.

"Hurry!"  
  
Sakaki could hear more shots in the dark, but Rica couldn't see them, and his bullets were confused by the blackness and sailed harmlessly away from them. Even the shot that had been inches from Sakaki's chest had missed. He was being dragged by someone now, maybe the cab driver or perhaps Doujima, he couldn't see them to know as they ran.  
  
"I'll kill you damn puppies!"

Sakaki felt himself suddenly being pushed into something, and then he felt himself connecting with someone else, who gave an "oww!" and he recognized the voice as Doujima.

He realized they must be back in the cab because they were speeding off down the road, and a moment later he realized he was right. The darkness vanished and he found himself crammed headfirst into the moldy brown leather seat of the cab. Doujima was sitting next to him, but not looking at him. In the front he saw the cab driver, driving the cab and the ginger haired girl sitting in the passenger seat breathing heavy.

"What the hell was Rica's problem?" The driver asked angrily.

"He's a bastard." Sakaki said simply as he sat up in the seat.

"Well we know that." The ginger haired woman said shortly. "But why did he go from bastard boss to homicidal psycho?"

"Beats me." Doujima said, her eyes focused intently on the two STN-A agents and not looking at Sakaki in the least. "But he tried to kill every last member of the STN-J."

The driver cussed and the ginger haired woman sighed. Sakaki was still confused.

"Well, we have to report him to the boss." The driver spoke simply. "Mr. Kauffman will want to know what's going on."  
  
"Who?" Sakaki asked."Hmm? Oh, Kauffman, the Manager back at HQ." The driver spoke, and Sakaki realized that Kauffman had the same job as Zaizen back home.

The driver reached down and began to fiddle with the radio, there was static, a country song, and then a moment later a female voice spoke.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Amy, tell Kauffman that Mr. Rica just tried to kill us." The driver said.

"What? Oh my God, Rica is back? Already?" The woman's voice sighed.  
  
"Yeah, why?" The ginger haired girl asked."Michael over in Japan warned me about Rica earlier, but I didn't think he was back yet."

"Michael?" Doujima mumbled quietly.

"Well just great." The driver spat bitterly. "You could have warned us."

"You could have called me and told me he was back in this country!" Amy's voice spat.

"Can we argue later?" The ginger haired girl asked nervously. "Mr. Rica is going to follow us."

As if this were the cue, the window behind Sakaki and Doujima suddenly exploded, a jet of water moving at least seventy miles a hour burst through and smashed forward through the front windshield. Four sets of eyes turned around to see a yellow taxi cab speeding behind them, Rica obviously inside launching his craft at them.

"Under the seat." The driver shouted at Sakaki, who looked confused. Still, he blinked and reached under his seat, and pulled out a long black box with the letters "B. G." Engraved on the top of the box in large, golden letters. Sakaki opened the box to find a sleek black handgun and matching silencer.

He quickly picked up the gun, ignoring the silencer, and turned to aim at the cab behind them. A second jet of water smashed into the back of the cab causing the people inside to be sent upward with a jolt. Doujima cried out as her head hit the ceiling, and Sakaki lost his aim.

Trying his best to take focus, the rookie witch hunter aimed the gun, not at Rica who would have been impossible to hit, but at the cab's front hood. He fired four shots, three of which pierced the hood and into the engine below, the fourth missed completely.

There was a moment in which time Sakaki wondered if the shots had done any good, but in a split second later a bright orange flame shot up from beneath the hood of Rica's cab. Water quickly shot out from the middle of the air to extinguish the flames, but it didn't matter because Rica's car was already slowing down.

"Good shot, err, what was your name again?"  
  
"Sakaki. Haruto Sakaki."  
  
"Brandon Gold. Now hang on, eh?"

And the car sped off as fast as it could, flying from the dirt roads from the construction site right into the busy traffic of New Orleans main streets.

Back at the New Orleans field office, Amy had just received a email from Michael telling her that a third STN-J agent named Robin Sena would be landing in a few minutes. . .

**----**

Robin had finally drifted off to sleep peacefully when she felt a soft thud and opened her eyes in time to realize the plane was now landing. She quickly flipped open the window and looked out onto the streets and lights of the New Orleans airport and she gasped in awe.

She had never been to America before, though she had learned to speak English while in Italy. She had been taught while she was still young, both English and Japanese simultaneously, because at the time it wasn't known if she'd be sent to one of the five STN-A offices (based in New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco) or one of the three STN-J building (which of course she was sent to the main STN-J office in Tokyo).

She really would have enjoyed seeing the sights America had to offer if not for her overwhelming tiredness from the past few days and worry. Instead all Robin wanted was to find and stop Rica and get back to Japan, back to Michael . . .

Robin waited for the traffic at the door to thin before she stood and made her way off the plane.   
  
"Thank you for flying with us today."  
  
Robin nodded politely to the stewardess. "Thank you as well." And then headed off the plane and towards the very terminal where only hours before Sakaki and Doujima had arrived at.

"Robin?"

She turned around to see a woman with light blonde she didn't know. The woman wore a light blue dress beneath a dark navy jacket like the one Rica wore. She was out of breath and clutching her knees with her hands, but between her right palm and her right knee was a small sheet of paper that contained Robin's picture and some words.

"Yes. . ." Robin said hesitantly.  
  
"I'm . . . Amy Adams . . . Michael sent me . . . here." She panted.

Robin's eyes widened at the mention of Michael.

"What is it?"  
  
Amy reached out and handed Robin the crumpled paper, which was a copy of Michael email. Beneath Robin's picture were words.

Dear Amy,

This is Robin Sena, she's with the STN-J.

I sent her to help Sakaki and Doujima, who I told you about before.Help her in any way you can, alright?If she needs any proof of who you are just show her this letter.  
  
And Robin, if you're reading this than you should trust this woman. She's my friend.

Now go stop Rica and hurry back so we can go get some Miso Soup at Harry's.

Robin read over the letter twice and realized that it was really Michael, the comment about Miso soup couldn't just be a coincidence. She looked up at Amy, who was still breathing heavy.  
  
"I'm sorry . . . the letter only came . . . I had to hurry . . ."  
  
Robin shook her head. "It's okay. Where are Doujima and Sakaki?"  
  
Amy shook her own head now. "No . . . clue. They were with friends of mine not long ago . . . but the radio went dead."

Robin sighed and closed her eyes.

Where were they?

**----**

Amon's eyes were still closed, though he was now awake once more.

He couldn't lay on his back, of course, since bullets had pierced the rear of his legs and his neck, so instead he lay down face first into a pillow, his dark hair matted with dried blood and sweat still dripping down his face.

Touko had left. She had been here but Amon had no interest in talking to her now, and he was still so weak from surgery to tell her anything so he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. She had left around the same time Nagira had arrived. Amon was surprised to hear Nagira's voice from the hall.

It was about twenty minutes later when he heard both footsteps and the sound of wheels clicking over the floor. He continued to keep up the charade of being asleep, the overwhelming combination of painkillers and lack of real sleep had made him too tired to converse with anyone.

"He's still asleep."  
  
Amon heard Nagira's voice and wondered for a moment if it was Touko he was speaking too, but a moment later he heard a second voice – Karasuma's.

"I know." She said. "I just wanted to see him. It's . . . odd."  
  
"What is?" Nagira's voice asked.

"Amon. Being here. Being like this. I've known him since I joined the STN, and I've never seen him like this before. He looks so . . . normal. So . . . unlike himself."

"So he's not normally normal, eh?" Nagira laughed.

"Well… yes. Not in a bad way… he just… Amon's never seamed like a normal person to me. He's always been stronger than any of us. Even when we were rookies, he was still the strongest. In fact, the only other time I remember seeing him show the slightest hint of weakness was after the first time we hunted Calypso."

"Yeah, well." Nagira said. "I remember him being in a hospital a hellova lot."

"Let's go." Karasuma's voice said. "I don't want him to wake up and hear this."  
  
"Fine." Nagira said. "You won't want him to know you think he's weak?"  
  
"No." Karasuma spoke one last time. "I don't think he's weak. I just think he's human."

Amon said nothing.

**----**

Sakaki was in a blur, the cab was driving faster than he would have liked.  
  
Speeding down the road on a Motorcycle was one thing, they had maneuverability, they could dodge things, and they could easily work their way through traffic like this, but a big, hulky cab, could not.

He sighed and sunk back down into the seat, casting a look to his left and to Doujima. She wasn't looking at him, and he wondered if she was mad at him from earlier. It was clear that before she had been furious, but in all the craziness she must have forgotten."Hey Doujima –"  
  
"Don't talk to me." She said bitterly, turning her head away from him.Apparently she had not forgotten.

"C'mon Doujima, now isn't the time to argue."  
  
"Oh no." Doujima said, her voice as cold as ice and as sharp as a sword. "Now is never the time for anything. That's all things are to you, eh Sakaki? '_Doujima, now isn't the time to flirt, Doujima now isn't the time to argue, Doujima now isn't the time to have any thing close to fucking fun!_' Well when is it time to enjoy life!?"  
  
Sakaki said nothing as she turned around, her eyes were red and dripping silent tears out. She was madder than Sakaki had ever seen her before, and he didn't quite think now was a good time to talk to her.

_That's the problem, isn't it?_ Sakaki thought.

"Doujima, I'm sorry, okay I—"  
  
"No." Doujima said, turning away from him once again. "No you've made your feelings perfectly clear on the subject, thank you very much."

Sakaki sighed.

In the front seat Brandon Gold and the ginger haired girl both shook their heads.

Didn't the Japanese Witch Hunters understand that there was a much bigger problem than their shot love life?  
  
And that problem's name was Jackson David Rica.

**----------------------**


	12. Make a Stand

**Witch Hunter Robin  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter XII – Make a Stand**

**  
Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, Calypso© and the Evil David Rica© are all my property.

**----------------**

_"To the well prepared mind, Death is just the next great adventure."  
Albus Dumbledore, (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)_

_"There is no point in living if you can't feel alive."_

_ Electra King, (The World is Not Enough)_

_"Look down upon me Jesus, _

_     you gotta help me make a stand"  
James Taylor, (Fire and Rain)_

**----------------**

The cab was flying down the road at a speed so great that Doujima became more worried about crashing into someone else than she was in arguing with Sakaki. She was mad at him, no, not just mad, she was _fuming, livid, angry, furious, pissed_ and whatever else she could thing of.

It wasn't because he refused to flirt with her, and it wasn't because she thought he was being up tight, she knew perfectly well that David Rica was much more important than their petty problems. No, she was mainly mad at herself, and taking it out on him.

The problem was that was how she lived her life; she relaxed, and enjoyed life, because she knew damn well how quickly life can end. So she enjoyed every minute of it, even if in those minutes she was being chased by an undead witch psychopath. And yet, Sakaki couldn't see that way. He was too concerned with doing his job.

_He can't even do his job right; the kid has been messing up since he got this job_.

That wasn't true. She sighed; she could still remember how he had helped her at the beach before after Rica had crumpled the boat they had been on. Maybe she had been too hard on him; he was just trying hard to stop the bad guy . . .

But she'd be damned if she'd admit it.

**----**

Sakaki sighed.

Doujima was still ignoring him, and if he tried to speak to her she would snap at him and bite his head off. It was an annoying reality that to Doujima, her pointless flirting was more important than finding and stopping David Rica. Then again, they hadn't stopped Rica, they had run from him.

"Hey, where are we going?" Sakaki suddenly asked, leaning closer to the front seat where the STN-A agents sat.

"Been waitin' for you to tell me." Gold responded.

"You mean we've just been driving around?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Waiting on me?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
Sakaki cussed and sighed. He had no clue where they should go. They could always look for Rica, but Sakaki hadn't the faintest idea where they would search, he was in a foreign country and he guessed that if Rica tried to hide they wouldn't find him.

Then he remembered something else.

"Hey, is there any way we can search for Calypso?"  
  
The driver, Gold, thought about it for a second. Then he nodded. "I can ask Amy. But this Calypso guy, he's supposed to be dead right?"  
  
Sakaki nodded. "That was his cover story."  
  
Gold considered this once more. "And he's in touch with Rica?"

"Yeah."  
  
Suddenly Gold jerked the old leather steering wheel and the cab jerked around and began to fly off in the opposite direction, now driving even faster than they had been previously (which upset Doujima).

"What the hell?"

"Relax." Gold said, shooting a glance back to Sakaki and Doujima. "We're heading to Rica's house, down in the swamp. Calypso could hide out there easily."  
  
Sakaki blinked. "Wouldn't you guys know if Rica had a roommate?"  
  
"Do you know about your boss's private life?" Gold asked.

Sakaki laughed and shook his head. That was true. He knew nothing about what Amon did when he wasn't at work. But this thought was pushed away quickly. He hated thinking that Amon and Rica had anything in common.

"So what's your plan?" Doujima asked.

"Well --" Sakaki began."I wasn't asking you." She snapped, turning her head towards Gold.

Gold, however, just sat there in silence driving like a maniac down the road. He had yet to change lanes and was driving through traffic on the wrong side of the road. Angry beeps and curses from cars around them were becoming all too common.

It didn't really matter, as long as they reached Rica's house in time.

And it didn't matter to Rica either, who was already on his way home expecting them.

**----**

Robin was now sitting in a small, blue Volkswagen, next to Amy Adams who was driving towards the STN-A's field office in New Orleans, the one she worked at. They were going to go look for Rica from their computer systems there.

"Amy?"  
  
Robin jumped a bit at the voice, she had not been paying attention and it startled her at first. Her eyes moved down to the car radio where a unfamiliar voice was speaking. Amy reached down and pressed a button on the dashboard and then she spoke.  
  
"Yeah, I'm here."  
  
"What are you doing?" The voice shot back again. "I've been trying to reach you for ten minutes."  
  
"I'm sorry." Amy said quietly. "I had to pick up someone."  
  
"Now isn't the time for personal errands Amy, our boss just revealed that he is crazy and –"  
  
"It's a girl from Japan." Amy cut him off. "She's here after Rica."  
  
There was a pause and then, to Robin's surprise, Doujima's voice spoke over the radio speaker.

"Robin?"  
  
"Doujima." Robin choked out in shock. "What are you?"  
  
"No time Robin." Doujima's voice spoke back. "Listen, we're heading down to Rica's house in the Bayou to find Calypso, meet us there okay?"  
  
"Of course." Robin said simply. "But what happened back in Tokyo? Is Sakaki with you."  
  
There was a small, awkward pause before: "Yeah, he's with me." Doujima said shortly, and Robin clearly got the feeling that she didn't want to talk about him.

Robin only nodded (though Doujima could not see her, she did it out of habit) and slunk back into the chair. She was very tired and knew she'd need even a few minutes of something remotely close to rest if she was going to find and fight Calypso, who was the brains behind Rica.

What was Calypso like? She did not know if he held any powers other than his ability to raise the dead, and she wished very much she had asked Michael or Amon about this.

Then the biting tears appeared in the depths of her eyes, and she tried to keep them away. _Amon_. She had not thought about the fact that her partner was currently in surgery. _Or is he?_ It had been nearly two days since Amon was shot, and she knew that by now he must be out by now.

_Did he make it?_

She sighed and shook her head against the seat she sat in. Of course Amon had made it. He was Amon. He wouldn't just die like this. Robin was just thinking nonsense. She had to think of something different. She had to think about Rica, or about Doujima and Sakaki, or . . .

"Michael speaks about you a lot."  
  
Robin was shaken from her thoughts as Amy spoke suddenly. The blonde turned her head to face the American and suddenly she became very interested.  
  
"He does?"  
  
Amy nodded. "Yeah. He does."  
  
Robin bit her lip, curious to hear anything she could about Michael. She had known the hacker for a couple months now but she still didn't _know_ him. He had confided in her about his past, about the collar, but he hadn't spoken much else about him.

"Are you two . . . umm . . . you know . . . together?"

Robin didn't quite know how to answer that question as Amy asked it, so instead she just turned her head to the right and stared out the window of the car. It was a beautiful blue sky out, but the slightest gray clouds in the distance could be seen forming, a storm was building on the horizon and soon that storm would come crashing down with all of the fury of the sky.

"Yes, we are." Robin said at length, still staring at the forming gray storm clouds that slowly built themselves in the distance.

"Oh. Well that's good."  
  
And they drove in silence the rest of the way.

**----**

Rica hadn't had any trouble beating the cab back to his bayou mansion where Mr. Calypso was waiting patiently for any news he could bring him.

The smug smiling Solomon agent had simply found a man entering his car at a nearby parking garage, killed him, and stolen the car, which was a 01' Ford Firebird and made much better timing to his mansion than the '86 Taxi cab his enemies were driving.

Arriving outside the white painted swamp house cottage, Rica pulled his gun out of his pocket and walked to the door slowly. He wanted to handle his first problem just right. It was like tearing off a Band-Aid, you had to do it fast and in one pull, or it'd just be a longer, more painful process.

The second Rica had stepped into the hallway of the bayou mansion; an old man appeared at the top of the stairs. He looked to be in his fifties, with a balding head, but the little hair he had left was gray and matted. The man's eyes were both cold and dead, like Rica's own orbs beneath his sunglasses. The man at the top of the stairs was leaning on an old black cane, with a sterling silver handle.

"Peter, you've returned." The cold, drawing voice of Charles Calypso spoke somberly.

"Yes sir, I have." Rica said his accent thicker since arriving back at his native home.

"How did it go in Japan? Did Amon suffer? You told me on the phone Amon was dead. Did he suffer?"  
  
Rica smiled. "Indeed sir, I shot him four times."  
  
Calypso laughed. "Yes you did, didn't you? Twice in the left leg, once in the right, and once in the collarbone, isn't that right?"

A cold surge of what could only be terror flashed down Rica's spine as Calypso described Amon's death in such vivid details. Rica knew what was coming next.

"Amon is alive; I watched his surgery on the John Hopkins web cam. He has suffered major damage, but he should make a fine recovery."

Rica felt a cold spear of dread pierce his dead heart at these words. Calypso's old body was shaking with rage and Rica wanted no more to disappear into one of the side rooms of the un-lit mansion and away from the staircase he stared up. But he could not disappear.

"You've disappointed me Peter. Perhaps I shall remove your eyes from that body for a few years. Return you in another later. Maybe that will teach you?"  
  
Rica watched Calypso press a hidden button on the silver handle of the cane, and moment later the black oak casing fell away to reveal a bright, livid sword that seamed to thirst for Rica's eyes. Rica sighed."Sir, you know I thank you for giving me the eternal life you have, but I can't let you do that."  
  
Rica raised his arm and fired two shots of his gun before Calypso could react. The bullets pierced the old witch's eyes, which splattered a thick, gray blood on the walls around him. Calypso didn't even utter a scream as he fell to the ground lifeless.

"Ah sir, I am terribly sorry." Rica said fondly to the dead body. He didn't mean it, but it was the proper thing to do, apologize when you've just betrayed your boss to the death.

Rica then heard the sound of that tired, old cab dragging itself through the mud of the swamp towards his home and he smiled.

The puppies were here.

**----**

The man was relatively young to have such power, but power he did have. Perhaps not as much power as some of his peers, some of the other members of the board, but he had more power than millions of people would ever dream of.

His office was square and dark; everything was a dark gray, brown, or black. Most of the office was empty save only a filing cabinet, a large metal desk, his leather swivel chair, and his computer on the wall. There were no windows in the man's room, only a large glass door at the front. Although it was glass, it was impossible to see through it. Only shadows could be seen through it.

And a shadow stood in the doorway now.

The door opened after a brief pause and an older man came in the room, he had thick gray hair and a mustache that was just as thick and gray. He wore an expensive suit and his mouth carried a worried expression.

"Yes?" The man behind the desk asked the mustached man.

"Are you aware that David Rica is betrayed us?" The mustached man asked nervously.

"I am now that you have informed me." The man who's office this was responded.

There was a pause.

"Sir, you don't sound surprised." The mustached man said, even quieter.

The man at the desk laughed. "I have wondered for some time where he true loyalties lie. I wondered if he was still taking orders from that fool Calypso. That is why I chose to send him to evaluate Zaizen's office."

The mustached man scratched his head. "Was that wise? This was our big chance to get the Orbo. Sending someone you believed to be a traitor to get it under the lie of reviewing the STN-J just seams like a bad idea."  
  
The man behind the desk shook his head. "Most of the STN-J was wounded by Rica, were they not? Yes, we do not yet have the Orbo, but Zaizen's organization is hurt. Now is a perfect chance to get it."  
  
The mustached man shifted nervously. "But sir, the High Boss has already forbid us to send any more Solomon operatives to Japan until the mess with Rica is cleared up."  
  
The man behind the desk rolled his eyes. "And I'm sure the High Boss would forbid us to plot against him, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him."

The mustached man seamed distressed. "Sir! The walls have ears here!"

"Oh yes, I suppose. That is all, you may go."  
  
The mustached man looked as though he had no intention of going, but he also looked afraid to argue so he turned around and walked briskly to the glass door and then vanished.

The man behind the desk chuckled to himself. They were all fools. The Factory, Solomon, they were all playing right into his hands. He sighed, although, quietly. It was a real pity Rica had betrayed them. He had always liked David.

Oh well, plotting against Solomon was a dangerous business.

**----**

The crappy cab ride was even worse through the bayou, but they made it alright in time. Of course all four of the people in the cab could tell right away that Rica was already here, a Ford Firebird was parked outside the building and they all felt a cold shiver.

This was it. They were hunting Rica.

"Alright." Gold said quietly. "There are enough guns in the trunk to equip a small army, so take what you need."  
  
Sakaki blinked. "What, you're not coming with us?"

Gold shook his head. "We're staying outside to cover the exits; you two get in there and do the killing."

Sakaki nodded grimly. "Alright, you ready Doujima? Doujima?" Sakaki blinked before he noticed Doujima had already climbed out of the cab, popped the hood, and was digging through the trunk. He sighed, wishing she'd stop acting like a child long enough to kill Rica.  
  
He sighed, opened the door, climbed out of the car, walked over to the trunk (Doujima scooted far over so they wouldn't stand next to each other) and then he gasped as he looked down in the trunk. If he'd though Gold was exaggerating about the amount of guns in the trunk, he was sorely mistaken.

Several unassembled machine guns and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers were in cases in the back. There were small boxes of bullets and shotgun shells in a large crate to the left, and enough hand guns covered the rest of the trunk to equip the a police task force.

"Damn . . ." Sakaki said with a whistle as he reached down and pulled an Ingram M-11 submachine gun. It was the kind of tiny machine gun he'd always seen in the _Bond_ or _Matrix_ movies.

Doujima had strapped a belt on herself and a holster on each of her hips held a handgun, while she held a third in her hand. Sakaki grabbed a few more, stuffing them in the waistband of his pants, in his jacket, and even one miniature hand gun in his sock. He knew he wouldn't need all of these (At least he hoped so) but it still felt nice to have this many at once.

Still, not even the thought of finally putting a well-deserved bullet in Rica's ass (eye really) or the idea of having this many guns on him was enough to make his mixed angry and sorrowful feelings towards Doujima go away.  
  
"Listen, Doujima before we go in there – HEY!"  
  
Doujima was already ignoring him, walking towards the front door. Sakaki cussed and followed her as fast as he could.

Doujima however wasn't waiting. She slipped her hand around the icy cold doorknob and turned slowly, walking into the mansion with her gun out in front of her. If she had expected a hunt through the darkness to find Rica like in the movies, she was wrong. She saw him right away sitting at the bottom of the stairs, fingering his handgun gently. He smiled his smug smile as she walked in and waved.

"Well hello lil' puppy."

Doujima was so surprised that she didn't have enough time to raise her gun before Rica brought his own up and fired at her. Almost on impulse she jumped aside into the small room on the right that contained the grandfather clock and the psychiatrist couch. Rica laughed.

Upon hearing the gunshot Sakaki ran twice as fast to the door, only to find Doujima diving wildly into a room and Rica sitting on the stairs like a child who was squirting a water gun at the family dog.

"And here's puppy number two." Rica smiled as he raised the gun. Sakaki jumped himself towards the room on the left, but he instinctively fired his own gun as he did. The bullets struck Rica in his chest, but of course they did nothing more than cause a light pain in his chest.

Rica laughed once more and stood up, running over to the room on the left he peered inside. Sakaki had jumped inside to escape being shot, but he had not counted on the large piano that sat so close to the door and he had smashed himself head-first into it.

"Aww, poor puppy went and bashed his head." Rica laughed. "Well, they had to shoot ole yellar when he got hurt, guess I have no choice."

Rica raised his gun at Sakaki's unconscious form. This time he would not miss.  
  
"NO!"

Rica heard Doujima's voice as she realized what he was doing. He had heard women scream that word at him many times before, just as he killed their lovers or children, but this time that woman had a barrette pistol in each hand and fired them at him.

Bullets smashed into Rica's back, into his arms, and into his neck and he only laughed. Of course it hurt, but he had learned to ignore the pain after a while.   
  
"Naw puppy that isn't gonna work." He laughed.

"This will." Doujima said icily as she raised the gun in her right hand and fired a bullet clear into Rica's left eye.

David Rica had not expected this.

The scream that echoed out from his dead throat was piercing, a horrible sound that chilled to the bone and he dropped his gun and tumbled backwards. His sunglasses had shattered and fallen away and Doujima looked on as the left half of his face was splattered with oozing red blood.

Sakaki was stirring now, and as he woke up Doujima dropped her guns and dropped down to his side, her arms flying around his shoulders and her anger long forgotten.

"Doujima?" He blinked as her face loomed into view.  
  
"What's it gonna take for you to call me Yuri?" She snapped but continued to hug him.

Of course she had forgotten her anger at him, but she had also forgotten that Rica had one eye left. She heard the sound of a gun cocking behind her and she closed her eyes.

"I hate you." Rica said quietly as he pulled the trigger.

Doujima's eyes were closed tightly and she prepared for the bullet that would kill her, but what she had not prepared for was Sakaki pushing her down to the ground. The bullet grazed Doujima's shoulder as she fell, and while it hurt her heart hurt even worse as she watched the bullet pierce Sakaki's upper chest. Sakaki bit his lip as he fell down into blackness, dripping red blood oozing from beneath his shirt.

"Aww, isn't that touching?" Rica said his voice like icy knives. "Letting himself die for you."

Doujima turned around, a look of pure hate in her eyes as she gazed at Rica.

"He died for you, and yet you're gonna die anyway. Hah, puppy love is a useless thing, do you know that Doujima?" Rica was smiling from his one-eyed face. Beneath the blood that covered his face she saw that smug smile again. "That's why I hate puppies."  
  
Rica's finger pulled the trigger, but before the bullet could end Doujima's life a blast of bright orange flame appeared and burnt it in midair. Doujima's tear filled eyes and Rica's single; blood filled one turned towards the front door.   
  
The front door where Robin Sena stood.

"Well, the lil' birdie joins the puppies." Rica smiled his smug smile. "Or should I say puppy, I already killed one of them."  
  
"Shut up." Robin spoke, her voice filled with hatred hotter than her craft.

"Make me." Rica smiled.

A jet of water flew through the room towards the youngest hunter of the STN-J, but a blast of yellow flames met it halfway, and while the flames became harmless smoke, the water evaporated as well.

Rica smiled a grim smile, but it fled instantly. Blazing orange streaks of fire had flicked up from the floor and their yellow tongues licked at him with a malicious hunger for death.  
  
Rica's cold water fell onto the flames like rain, turning them into harmless smoke.

"You'll have to do better Robin." Rica spat as he sent two more jets of water at the hunter half-his-age. Robin's flames met the jets of liquid halfway and burnt them into steam before they touched the young girl in the least.

"I don't want to kill you." Robin said flatly, and it was true."Well I want to kill y-o-o-o-u." Laughed Rica smugly.

Rica threw his gun aside so he could make full use of his craft, bringing his hands out in front of him and focusing with all his might. No less than nine jets of water flying faster than eighty miles per hour flew at Robin, but her flames jumped up and turned them all to steam so quickly that no more than a few drops of water flew into her hair.

"Alright." Rica said, anger rising. "Now I'm pissed."

Two jets of water flew at Robin but as she blocked them with her flames a third jet shot from her left. She turned in time to evaporate away the full force of the blast but enough water struck her face to send her glasses flying into the wall, where they shattered and fell to the floor.

Robin blinked the water out of her emerald eyes as she realized what had happened and a sense of dread overtook her. Without the glasses . . .

Three jets of water came flying at her from Rica, who had wasted no time in attacking once again, and Robin turned to block them all. Her fire missed their targets by mere centimeters but it was enough, the flames only ate away parts of the water and even then they weren't as hot as they had been. The jets of water smashed into Robin's chest, sending her into the same wall that had broke her glasses.

She slunk down to the floor as a forth jet of water smashed into her face, knocking her unconscious. The water did not stop with knocking the hunter out, it continue to smash into her face, drowning her the same way Rica had drowned Sarah Rhodes.

"Time for the birdie to die." Rica smiled.

"Time for the puppy to bite the jackass." Doujima's voice snapped. Rica blinked his one remaining eye and looked down to the ground where he had thrown away his gun. Doujima now held the gun in her hand.

Rica changed the flow of his water jet from Robin's face to Doujima's side but he was too later, the blonde had pulled the trigger and the bullet had flown from his own gun into Rica's one remaining eye.

Rica let out a second scream even worse than the first as he fell backwards right into an ugly chair, blood pouring out of his right eye just as it had from his left. Doujima blinked after the water stopped pounding her chest and looked up at the chair. Rica lay in the chair lopsided, his head rolled on his shoulder and his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

Jackson David Rica was dead.

**----------------**


	13. See You Again

**Witch Hunter Robin  
Fire and Rain  
  
Chapter XIII – See You Again**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Witch Hunter Robin® or any characters. They are registered Trade Mark™ of Sunrise® and now apparently Sci-Fi™. If I owned WHR it wouldn't have just been 26 episodes.  
  
Nor do I own the song _Fire and Rain_; I just borrowed its title.  
  
Storyline, Plot, and **David Rica©** are all my property. **  
**** ----------------******

Robin's eyes opened and she felt . . . different.

Her vision was blurry, more so than usual. And her chest hurt. There was a bright light above her head and she had to squint until her eyes focused. Once they did she noticed the white tiled ceiling and realized she was in a hospital.  
  
Moving with some difficulty and pain and sat up and looked around. She was lying on a small hospital bed. It was spotlessly clean and sterile all around and suddenly she was reminded very much of her two trips to the hospital during the bout with Kita Nobunaga.  
  
She pushed the blanket down off her herself to find that she was clothed in one of those horrible hospital gowns with no back. She tried to stand, but a gentle yet firm hand appeared on her shoulder and pushed her back down into the pillow.

"You rest.""Michael."Robin turned her head to find the computer wiz at her side. He pulled the blanket back up onto her and he smiled. She was completely amazed to see him here, sitting next to her because her last memories had been of losing the fight with Rica.

"What –"  
  
"Doujima killed him." Michael said automatically. "You know we keep meeting in the hospital like this."  
  
Robin couldn't help but smile back at the hacker who had stolen her heart and suddenly she blinked as noticed he wasn't sitting on a small folding chair as he had been the last time they met in a hospital like this, but sitting on his own high bed full of white sheets like Robin's, and he was wearing a hospital gown too. As well as several bandages on his left arm and shoulder, and a few band-aids on his face.

Michael noticed her noticing this and laughed. "I thought it was time I came to the hospital myself. I'm due in surgery in a few minutes for my shoulder, but I wanted to wait until you woke up first."

Robin smiled at him. "You didn't have to do that."  
  
Michael smiled back. "I wanted to."

Robin wanted to reach out and hug the hacker but she thought she had better not since he was bandaged up so much. She hadn't realized how badly he hurt his arm until now. Then something else struck her.

"Michael, how did I get back to Japan?"

Michael laughed again. It was good to hear him laugh; she hadn't heard him even slightly happy since the day Rica showed up. "On an airplane silly."  
  
Robin frowned at him. "You know what I mean."

Michael smiled. "Yeah I do. They already checked you out in America, and then they flew you back here asleep with Doujima and Sakaki. You've been out for about three days, I was worried." Michael said the last words with difficulty.

Robin sighed. "I'm sorry I worried you."

Michael shook his head. "Goes with the job."

"How are Doujima and Sakaki?" Robin asked, curious for any information she could get.

"Well, Sakaki's okay. The bullet slowed down when it grazed Miss. Doujima so it didn't tear up his shoulder as bad as it might have. He should be getting out of surgery soon. And Doujima's fine psychically, but I don't know about mentally."  
  
Robin looked worried. "Why do you say that?"  
  
Michael sighed. "Well, she killed Rica. She's never killed anyone before. She says she's fine but it's hard when you first kill someone."  
  
Robin nodded. She knew that fact all too well. She remembered the first time she had . . .

"But mainly." Michael said, cutting off her thoughts before they became too grim. "She's upset about Sakaki. She thought he was dead. And she has strong feelings for him."  
  
"Yes." Robin said, her emerald eyes now meeting the hacker's icy blue ones.   
  
"And sometimes when you love someone, and you're worried about them it's hard on you." Michael said quietly, no longer speaking about Doujima but about himself and his worry for Robin.

"Yes, it's horrible to worry about the person you love." Robin said quietly as she leaned in, thinking about the time Michael had been shot and how worried she'd been for him. _I'm leaning in?_ She thought suddenly, realizing she was about to kiss Michael, and not just a little kiss like they had before…

This would be a real kiss . . .

Her lips inched closer to his, and she felt her mouth opening ever so slightly. Robin would have blushed if she wasn't so caught up in the wonder this kiss would surely be . . .

"Busy?"

Robin and Michael's lips had barley brushed against one another when the voice made them both jump back onto their respect beds. Their eyes all flew to the doorway where Doujima sat in a wheelchair, her face was broken into a sly smile and she was biting her bottom lip in excitement.

"Doujima." Robin whispered.

Doujima's eyes went from Robin to Michael. Her smile increased every second as she looked at the two of them with glee. Michael felt extremely annoyed and Robin was blushing redder than she ever had.

"Did I come at a bad time?" She smiled sweetly."Worse time you could come at, to be honest." Michael said.

"Oops." Her smile only beamed brighter. "I just wanted to know which room Haruto-kun is in."

Michael raised his eyebrow in an expression that clearly said "Haruto-_kun?_" but he made no move actually ask her when she started calling him by that name. He sighed.

"He's in room 289B."  
  
"Thank you Michael." She smiled. "Robin would you like to come with me?"  
  
Robin flushed even redder than she had and Doujima wondered if she had any blood left in her body that wasn't flooding to her cheeks."I . . . well . . . no . . . he . . ."  
  
"Get out of her Doujima!" Michael said flatly and the blonde girl laughed. "And get out of that wheelchair, you're not hurt!" Michael called after her as she vanished down the hallway, she only laughed.

Michael sighed and turned back to Robin, who was still redder than a tomato. He smiled down at her and blushed himself pink.

"I should, err, get to surgery." Michael said quietly.

"Of course." Robin spoke even quieter.

"Yes, well…"  
  
Robin shook her head for a moment and then doing something that surprised her even more than it did Michael, she bolted upright and pulled Michael into a deep kiss. The two youths melted into the fiery embrace, while both of their faces filled up with even more blush than before. Finally Michael broke away and the two stared at one another for a moment.

"Go get your arm fixed, Michael." Robin said at length. "I'll get some donuts for when you get back."  
  
Michael smiled.

**----**

"So how long are you going to fake being asleep?"  
  
Amon didn't acknowledge that he heard Nagira at all for a few moments before he finally turned his dark head as much as his neck brace would allow and looked at the brown haired man who was sitting in a chair beside his hospital bed. Nagira grinned an annoying grin and Amon glared at him.

"Why are you here?" Amon asked quietly.

"Touko called me." Nagira explained. "Lovely girl, by the way. You're lucky."

Amon said nothing.

"Don't pull that silent shit with me." Nagira said shortly. "If you want to blindly ignore the fact Touko's crazy about you than go ahead, but if you try to blindly ignore me I'll slug ya' in the face."

Amon said nothing.

"You've always been like this, you know? It's annoying." Nagira spoke flatly. "You could show some consideration for others, you know."

Amon said nothing.

Nagira shook his head and cussed. "Well, just thought you'd like to know that Rica fellow is dead. They wouldn't tell me any more than that."  
  
Nagira turned and walked slowly towards the door, his eyes scanning the white hospital room and sneering to himself. He wished he could smoke in here, but the nurse had become furious after he tried to light one up and almost called security. He paused just at the door and looked back over at Amon, who lay alone quietly.   
  
"Take care." Nagira said silently.

"You too." Amon said even quieter.

**----**

 Sakaki groaned as he opened his eyes. His entire left shoulder burnt like he was being stabbed by a thousand angry midgets with burning hot knives and spears. Why this analogy sprung into his head, he didn't know, but he did know a doctor had been poking, prodding and slicing his shoulder all day long and it hurt.

"You're awake."

Doujima's voice was barley above a whisper, which Sakaki was glad for since his head was pounding with pain. He had been stabbed a month ago by Kita Nobunaga, but he never imagined that being shot hurt even worse. Suddenly the memories of the time he shot Robin flooded back into his mind and he wondered if she had hurt this much?

"Yeah." He said quietly, returning his attention to Doujima.

She had lost the wheelchair she had been riding in and was now standing at the side of the bed. Her blue eyes were watering with salty tears. Though Sakaki had been awake before now and he knew what happened with Rica after he had been shot, he had not seen or spoken to Doujima since it happened.

"You saved my life, you know." Doujima said quietly as she moved forward and sat on the edge of Sakaki's bed, her teary blue eyes gazing into his sleepy ones of equal sapphire.

"After you saved mine." Sakaki reminded her.

"I guess." She muttered, her teeth digging into her bottom lip as they had been since her eyes first fell on him. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"My head hurts." Sakaki said mutely. "And my shoulder. And I have to take a piss. Other than that I'm just fine."  
  
Doujima gave him a weak smile. She remembered walking in on Robin and Michael's little heart filled moment only minutes ago and she wondered if she and Sakaki would ever have moments like that. She hoped so.

"Hey, you remember back on the beach? When I said the only reason I flirted with you was to break the Chief's rules? And I chose you because Amon is creepy and Michael likes Robin?"

Sakaki nodded, but said nothing.

"I lied." She continued. "I flirt with you because I like you."

Sakaki suddenly began to laugh and he closed his eyes, laying his head back down on the pillow. Doujima pouted and put her hands on her hips.  
  
"What's so funny?"

"I feel like I'm back in high school." Sakaki laughed.

"Oh shut up." She snapped.   
  
"Whatever you say Yuri."

Doujima's heart skipped a beat, her face lit up in a huge grin, and she reached down and before Sakaki even knew what she was doing she had planted a huge kiss right on his lips with a twinkle in her eyes.

"It's about damn time." She smirked.

**----**

Karasuma lay in her bed quietly. She wasn't quite sleeping yet, just musing over some things. Many things. Her life, her feelings, her job, she thought about all of it as she sat listening to the radio quietly in her white hospital room.

She was slightly confused by what was going on today. Not the fact that Rica was dead, or the fact the rest of her team were back from America, or anything of that nature, but a thought that had recently occurred to her.

Thinking about Calypso also made her think about five years ago. Think about when she first joined the STN-J, not even a week after Amon had killed Calypso. That was when she first joined. When she first met him. They were both just rookies then.

_That was a different time_.

Her powers had only just awakened then and she was more than happy to use them to hunt down Witches. Of course that was before the Orbo. That was in the days of Anti-Witch Bullets. That was in the days of killing. Everything was different.

_Not Amon. He was the same. He was just as cold._

Karasuma closed her eyes. Why was she thinking things like this? Why did she still have those old feelings? Why did she keep replaying that day in her head over and over again?

That day happened over five years ago and she knew it would never repeat itself. She knew it was foolish even thinking about it. She knew it wasn't the kind of thing Amon would ever speak to her about.

And yet, watching quietly from the sidelines as Doujima and Sakaki flirted, and Robin and Michael fell in love. It made her want to relive that day.

And she knew she wouldn't.

(Foreshadowing. )

**----**

Brandon Gold gave a sleepy yawn as he pulled the large black truck into the mud of the late Rica's mansion.

The STN-A had been so busy the first day after the incident with Rica, helping their Japanese counterpart, calling Solomon, and holding an investigation, that no one had bothered to take the old bastard's body from the mansion. Now it was Gold's job to do that unfortunate task.

He stepped out of the truck no longer dressed like a cab driver, now dressed more like a beach gomer. He wore an old Hawaiian shirt, _Old Navy_ style khaki shorts, and a large fishing vest with huge pockets in front that he used to carry his CD player in. (Which is currently playing Tim McGraw's _I'm a Real Bad Boy, but a Real Good Man_)

He yawned and reached into the other deep front pocket which contained a small, black handgun. He pulled it out and made sure it was loaded, cocked and ready. Of course, David Rica was dead and he wouldn't need the gun.

But just in case.

He walked up and opened the door slowly, not bothering to turn off his CD player as he walked military style towards the stairs with his gun out in front of him. His hazel eyes peered up the steps where he found Calypso's body where it had been left.

_Good, nothing to worry about then._

He turned and walked back to the room on the left. It was unchanged from the day of the battle; still there was no light in the room. Burn marks covered the walls from Robin's craft, and there were small puddle of water where Rica had used his own. The blood of Doujima and Sakaki was mixed on the ground beneath where they had once laid.

His eyes cast over to the chair that David Rica had died in.

And then he said "shit" very loudly.

**----**

Michael had left to go to his surgery, and so Robin went to lie back down in bed. Of course, the doctor had already told her she was free to leave the hospital, since all the rest of the STN-J agents were here, she would stay as well.

She gave a sleepy yawn and snuggled down into the bed. Of course the reason she had been unconscious so long was not because of Rica's water, but because she had had so little sleep in the long days between now and the initial time Michael was shot so she had merely slept through the days.

Still, she was sleepy even now. Pulling the blanket up under her chin Robin decided to catch a few more minutes of shut eye until Michael returned. Memories of the kiss were still fresh in her mind and she wanted nothing more than to have him return. She had found love, and when someone finds love they hang on to it.

Suddenly there was a ringing and Robin turned over to look for the phone. Only upon seeing the phone on the wall and realizing it was not ringing did she understand it must have been a cell phone.

Her emerald eyes zoomed down to the floor where she saw Michael's pants lying on the floor from before. She reached down and picked his cell phone out from his pocket. She paused, feeling kind of guilty about answering his phone, but it might be important and she didn't want Michael to miss his call.

She opened the cell phone, only looking briefly at the Called ID which said "A. Adams."  
  
"Hello?"  
  
There was a pause, and then a voice Robin recognized as Amy's filled the earpiece. It was Amy but she was quieter and shyer than Robin had remembered.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I must have the wrong number . . ."  
  
"No Amy!" Robin said quickly. "It's Robin. Michael's in surgery right now. For his arm."

There was a second, even longer pause. "Robin . . . I don't know how to tell you this."  
  
Robin suddenly felt an icy sense of dread fill her chest. Cold as the black night itself. What was it? What could have possibly happened that would be this bad?  
  
"Yes Amy?" She asked quietly.

"Umm . . . well, I sent Brandon over to Rica's mansion, you know, to collect his body . . . well . . ."

Robin's sense of dread was becoming worse by the second. She didn't speak as Amy's voice turned into a terrified, apologetic whisper. The words she next heard froze Robin Sena to the bone worse than anything ever had, except, perhaps for when Amon was nearly killed.

"I'm sorry to tell you this . . . umm . . . but Rica's body . . . was gone."

There was a third pause, this one longer and grimmer than the other two combined as Robin thought deeply about these words. Her emerald eyes moved around the white hospital room frightened, frantically searching for Michael, or Karasuma, or Doujima, or Amon, or anyone.   
  
Searching to make sure David Rica wasn't standing at the door wearing that smug smile she had grown to hate so much.  
  
But she was alone.

"Gone?"

Amy gulped. "I'm sorry Robin. Yes, it's gone."

Robin swallowed; her fear was taking her faster by the second. This was horrible news. This was the worst news a person could imagine.

"Do you think…" Robin said quietly, her voice becoming timid and hoarse. "He could be alive?"

There was a fourth pause. A pause that seamed to last forever. A pause that made Robin's heart sink into the dark blackness of despair. And then there was a noise to break the silence. A gunshot. Robin could then hear Amy scream. A scream following a gunshot.

_Just like Michael_.

Robin was too frozen with fear to do or say anything. Then a voice spoke, but not Amy's quiet, timid voice, it was the smug, evil, heavy accented voice that made Robin's worst fears come true.

"I hope you know lil' birdie, that you and the puppies are dead."

Robin did not scream out in terror, she merely woke up without a sound. She didn't scream because of nightmares.

Looking around she realized she was lying in bed, just as she had been earlier. Michael was gone, gone away to surgery. And she realized that she had, in fact, got a few more minutes of shut eye. There had been no cell phone. No Amy's frantic call. No David Rica calling.

David Rica was dead, and he'd stay that way.

Suddenly she heard a cell phone ring. With a frightened hand Robin reached down to Michael's pants and pulled out his small, black and silver cell. The name on the Caller ID said "A. Adams."

_Don't be silly Robin. It was just a dream_.

But was it? She knew that sometimes craft users had dreams that were . . . warnings.

"Hello?" Robin said frightened.

"Oh, I must have the wrong –"  
  
"Amy!" Robin choked out, her voice becoming high and squeaky.  
  
A pause.

"Robin?"  
  
"Yes. Michael's in surgery."

There was a pause, a long, grizzly pause. And then Amy's frightened voice spoke.

"Robin, I don't know how to tell you this . . ."

**-------------------**


	14. DVD Bonus: Amon Hates Flying Monkeys

**Note**:

Because of fanfiction.net's policy, and because I don't want my stories removed, I've had to take down the DVD Extras.

I will soon be replacing these chapters with "Deleted Scenes", which are actually just some extra scenes I'm going to write, which will be in the proper, novel form.

This way my stories are removed and you still get some kind of extra.

  
Also, if the Fanfiction.net boss people see this, I know that notes like this are not allowed, but it is only for a couple days while I get the deleted scenes ready.

Thank you,

**Golden-sama**


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